DJ Venkatesh
Diglipur, Feb 14: The union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands is spread between 6° to 14° North latitudes and from 92° to 94° East longitudes. The only way of speedy travel in these Islands is the Helicopter and the Sea plane services that are run by the A&N Administration.
People from every corner of these Islands for every small work and those who need specialized medical treatment have to travel to Port Blair every now and then, and for such people the Helicopter and Sea Plane Services have proved to be a boon, but now the A&N Administration seems to have been failing in continuing its sate of art Medical Evacuations from remote areas of these Islands.
Diglipur is the Northern most densely populated semi-urban town of these Islands one has to travel 290 Km by road and 185 Km by sea to reach the Capital City Port Blair from Diglipur. A&N Administration had started Helicopter services to different places including Diglipur
in these Islands, Helicopter service gained huge popularity among the residents as they got a speedy way to travel to Port Blair in needy times.
After the A&N Administration procured the sea plane they -stopped the helicopter service for Diglipur and stated the Sea Plane Services, the Sea Plane also gained huge popularity as everyone wanted to be onboard India’s first Sea Plane.
Recently A&N Administration again stopped the Sea Plane service from Diglipur and introduced Helicopter Services without any prior notice, now the weekly schedule of Helicopter for Diglipur is for two days i.e Tuesday and Friday.
On last Friday 8th of February there was a scheduled flight for Diglipur but the flight din’t take off from Port Blair, there were about eight passengers including patients waiting for the Helicopter in Diglipur because they were in need of specialized medical treatment which is unavailable there.
Among these patients there was one named Mr. Hanif Bux R/o Kalighat, Diglipur who had suffered neck injury and was referred to G.B Pant Hospital, Port Blair from Diglipur but he couldn’t reach Port Blair since there was no Helicopter Service on 8th instead of it being a scheduled day for helicopter.
Mr. Hanif had neck injury and it is almost impossible for people with Neck Injury to travel through roads and sea for very long distances but still the patient planned to travel through ATR to reach Port Blair, but next day on 9th Feb a helicopter in replacement of the helicopter scheduled for 8th was pressed into service and the patients travelled in it to reach Port Blair.
For Every Medical Patient who is in need of specialized medical treatment each minute is important and one day is too long for them to bare the endless pain that each one of them must have suffered from.
When Andaman Sheekha contacted Mr. Ravichandran, Officer-In charge Civil Aviation, A&N Administration for enquiring about the reasons on why the scheduled flight for Diglipur was cancelled on 8th Feb he replied that was because of some technical problems in Pawanhans-III helicopter which travel’s to Diglipur.
When Mr. Ravichandran was questioned on why the patients from Diglipur were not evacuated when the flight was cancelled he replied that he did not have any information about any patient from Diglipur and he added that generally Directorate of Health Services pass on such information to us and whenever any message is received for medical evacuation we immediately deploy our Helicopters to the specific area.
He further added that their main priority is to provide regular connectivity to the Southern Group of Islands as they are totally cut off from Port Bair and Diglipur is connected to Port Blair by Andaman Trunk Road so the urgency for the Helicopter services is in Southern Group.
When Mr. Ravichandran was questioned on why the Sea Plane services for Diglipur area is stopped and why Helicopter Service for Diglipur is just scheduled for two days a week he said that the decision of cancelling the Sea Plane Services for Diglipur and two day scheduled helicopter service is because of the problem of occupancy, he added
that generally all the flights plying to Diglipur are empty or scarcely occupied both while going and coming , based on the demand flights have been cancelled and rescheduled.
The cancelled flight was because of the Technical reasons and even when the flight was cancelled the Directorate of Health Services dint pass any information to the Civil Aviation wing of the Administration about the patients in need of Medical Evacuation now the question
arises who is responsible for these kinds of incidents the Civil Aviation Wing or the DHS the blame game will go on forever and such incidents will repeat again and again until the Departments of A&N Administration will develop proper coordination between them. This
incident could have been stopped if the Civil Aviation Wing would have informed the DHS about the cancelled flight and if the DHS would have informed the Civil Aviation Wing about the needy patients out there in Diglipur. It’s high time now, for the A&N Administration to develop coordination between its departments so that such incidents reduce.
