Port Blair, May 21: Mr. Vishal Jolly National Executive Member BJP & Former State President BJP-ANI wrote a letter to Lt. Governor ANI requesting for resolving the issue of water and power crisis.
Mr. Jolly in his letter expresses gratitude for appraising & highlighting the issues pertaining to the Islands before the Union Ministers of Government of India during the recent visit of LG.
Further he also appreciated the LG regarding 50 MW LNG Power Plant project at Bambooflat, South Andaman was also discussed, the foundation stone of which was laid by our Prime Minister Mananiya Narendra Modi on 30th December, 2018. This project has the capacity to provide electricity to major parts of the South Andaman region and people are anxiously waiting for its inauguration.
In his letter Mr. Vishal Jolly placed the following points for consideration:
1. It is pertinent to mention here that berthing infrastructure for LNG ships has already been developed at Panighat Jetty and therefore, once the work 50 MW LNG Power Plant project gets completed, the said infrastructure can be utilized appropriately.
2. By your constant persuasion and approach, this pending power plant project could get completed at the earliest and the same would provide big relief to the public at large.
3. Needless to mention here that the Islanders, especially the students as well as the business community are struggling hard because of constant power cuts.
4. Another larger issue which my fellow Islanders are facing is the acute shortage of supply of potable water. This issue is required to be taken care of on a priority basis; else the same would create more havoc & unrest.
5. The A & N Administration as well as the PBMC has although taken several positive steps to garner more water sources and also to provide the same to the general public, but the crisis requires a permanent solution by building up more infrastructures for augmentation of more water bodies and reservoirs.
6. I have been informed that in Rutland, there are two more large sources of water which can also be connected with the existing pipeline for further augmentation. Apart from the Rutland project, there are several other good sources of water which need to be looked into optimistically.
7. Cleaning and dredging of existing water sources could be taken up at war footing only during summer season when the water availability is minimum over those sources, such as ponds, lakes, reservoirs etc.
8. The option of installing high capacity desalination plants can also be explored and the same would prove fruitful considering the geography of the place where we live. Several countries have successfully adopted this method for years together.
9. Water and electricity are minimum basic necessities of life and regular adequate supply of both needs to be maintained.
Accordingly, he requested the LG to take all technically feasible & practically possible steps to end the water and power crisis permanently, in the larger interest of the people of these Islands.
