Gahesh, Savita & John Wilbert
Baratang, Dec 06: The indefinite peaceful protest at Baratang Jetty by the boat operators today completed the second day. The protest today started at 09:00 AM and continued till evening 09:00 PM.
It is learnt that the boat operators of Baratang will continue their protest till their demands are fulfilled by the Administration. However, they clarified that all tourist activities at Baratang Island will not be disrupted and tourists will not face any inconvenience.
Mr. R Senthil Kumar, President, Baratang Tourist Fiber Boat Owners Association told Andaman Sheekha Daily today that more than 250 boat operators including all the staffs gathered at the protest site in the morning but later when tourists arrived at Baratang, all guests were attended professionally while other association members continued the protest.
He also informed that till now no one from Administration has visited the protest site to listen to their grievances.
Earlier yesterday Mr. R Senthil Kumar informed the media that the main demands are to reinstate the Convoys at Jirkatang & Middle Strait as per Pre-Covid-19.
The Boat Owner Association is demanding to remove the limit of vehicles in each convoy, which is restricting tourist footfall in Baratang Island.
The BTFBOA is also demanding to revoke the mandate of taking 1-day prior permission from concerned Deputy Commissioners of South and North & Middle Andaman.
Mr. Kumar said that the DC Office Mayabunder takes more than 4 months each time for registration/renewal of our fiber boats and hence the BTFBOA is demanding to expedite the process and also to introduce one-time Registration of Fiber Boat at DC Office Mayabunder.
The President of BTFBOA further mentioned that the berthing charges for Existing Boat (The vessel which was made before implementation of the Inland Vessel Act 2016 of Andaman) is a serious pain. In Baratang it was stopped from operation since 2019. “Many boat operators have not even registered or renewed their boats after the introduction of the Andaman IV Act 2016. But the Port Management Board, Port Blair is in the interest of taking birthing charges from everyone including the boats which are dead since 2016. Every time the boat owners are being blackmailed to pay respective charges by restricting our new boat from getting registered/ renewed,” the President of BTFBOA informed.
