Thiruvananthapuram: The state government has given sanction to the proposal of fisheries department to start a modern sea food processing plant and a sales outlet at Vizhinjam port area as part of helping the fishermen community who had been badly affected by Ockhi The project aims at providing a sustainable source of income for fishermen families. The processing unit will ensure production and distribution of value-added ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat fish products. The project will be executed at a cost of Rs 4 crore. Fisheries director had earlier submitted a concept note on the proposal. The amount required for the project shall be met from Ockhi fund.The state government had earlier launched a scheme to provide educational aid for children of Ockhi victims. As per the scheme students from LKG to Class V will get a yearly aid of Rs 10,000. For those from Class VI to X, an amount of Rs 25,000 will be given. Plus Two students may be given Rs 30,000 and degree students will get yearly assistance of Rs 1 lakh. Thirty one students of LKG and UKG classes, 65 students of Class I to V, 50 students of Class VI to X and seven higher secondary students have been included under the scheme.As many as 194 out of 318 identified beneficiaries were pursuing undergraduation and 124 persons had completed graduation. It was estimated that an amount of Rs 13.92 crore would be required to fund their future education and training for employment.As per the statistics with the revenue department, an amount of Rs 18.9 crore was spent in Thiruvananthapuram as part of various relief measures following Ockhi, the highest amount of relief fund to be spent in the past few decades in the district and the highest across Kerala. In the capital, relief fund had to be spent under nine different components.Apart from allocations like aid for the dependants of the deceased and missing persons, the relief fund was spent on persons who were seriously injured, those who lost houses, aid for the injured persons and compensation for agricultural loss.

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