John Wilbert & Rabindranath Biswas
Port Blair, Sept 29: Taking a strong position in the ongoing protest by the DBRAIT students, the Joint Action Committee, a unit of all commercial vehicles, Port Blair declared to pull their service out tomorrow for 24 hours, a communication from JAC said. Till last input received even senior police have received similar inputs, which confirms that till now JAC has only openly announced to stage major protests tomorrow by withdrawing their services tomorrow.
Talking to Andaman Sheekha the representative of the union said that they have taken this decision in protest of the brutality and inhuman act done to the DBRAIT students by the A & N Police at the behest of the Andaman & Nicobar Administration. The Andaman and Nicobar Police had fired tear gas and opened powerful water cannons yesterday to disperse the protesting students and many of whom were injured and rushed to hospital.
“Affiliation and conducting of examination issues have become the subject of growing concern for many, but the myopic and indifferent attitude of the Administration towards students’ grievance and Administration’s taking no action against the DBRAIT authorities in this regard has nonplussed the people across these islands,” the Union said.
The Joint Action Committee said that, in the backdrop of this unfortunate issue they resorted to withdrawing their auto and commercial services tomorrow for 24 hours and setting a deadline of seven (7) days for the A & N Administration to fulfill the demands of the DBRAIT students. The Union also demanded a Judicial Inquiry in the matter, the Union said.
“If the Administration fails to resolve the issue within this time period, the pulling out of the auto and commercial services will be continued by the Union from 6th of October 2022 for an indefinite period,” they forewarned.
Andaman Sheekha Correspondent adds that the Joint Action Committee consists of dozens of associations of auto, jeep, trucks and private buses and it is still not clear how many associations of commercial vehicles will actually support the call.
