Tourism Department becomes ‘Purchase’ and ‘Repair’ Department
Mohammed Sajid
Port Blair, Mar 03: The Tourism Department is all set to lease out Waves Restaurant and Hornbill Guest House to ANIIDCO. It is worth mentioning here that the Tourism Department had recently repaired buildings of both the units spending lacks of rupees.
Last time when both of these units were leased out the private parties had not only delayed in vacating these buildings but also caused extensive damages to these buildings and in name of profit the Tourism Department had earned only peanuts.
It seems that Tourism Department has not learnt anything from its past mistakes and hence the Department is again planning to lease out these two newly repaired units to ANIIDCO, which has almost closed down most of its business and surviving only because of liquor trade.
One wonders when the ANIIDCO has failed to continue, Green Shop Business, Ship Catering business etc. then how the firm will manage these two units. Is it being done to please some selected souls, who can now have parties in these places and then ask ANIIDCO to bear the cost?
Most importantly, what kind of system is this, on one hand the Mangers and Assistant Managers of Tourism Department are being made to sit in the Tourism Department and on the other hand the Guest Houses and restaurants are leased out to others.
Already the Department had committed a mistake of purchasing large number of Buses by wasting lakhs of tax payers’ money and then handing over the same to other departments, that too free of cost.
According to reports four big buses were recently handed over to STS, 2 buses to Police and 2 other buses to Agriculture Department. One wonders what was the need to purchase these buses when the Department had no plan to operate those. Does the department have only two works “Purchase” and “Repair”.
When contacted the Director of Tourism Department, Mr. V Kannan told Andaman Sheekha that as the Tourism Department is not having sufficient man power, the Department is now leasing out the Waves Restaurant and Hornbill Nest to ANIIDCO.
When asked about keeping Managers and Assistant Managers in office for office work, which actually results in shortage of staffs on ground, the Director said that now the Department feels that these staffs are needed more in main office for various works, including field works and hence they were posted at the Main office.
Regarding buses, the Director said that as he is new he has no idea why those buses were purchased but he has been told that due to shortage of staffs and lack of maintenance the buses were handed over to various departments. “At present we have six buses among which two are unfit for road and other fours will be handed over to various departments very soon,” he said.
