Port Blair, Feb 25: The Director of Tourism Department today directed the Scuba Dive Centres of Andaman and Nicobar Islands to desist from unfair and unsafe business practices failing which the Director has warned that stringent action would be initiated against such defaulters.
In a press release today the Director of Tourism Department Dr. Viswakannan today said that some Scuba Dive Centers are not according due importance to safety-related issues of the activity.
“The recent incident involving a tourist from Jamshedpur who was suffering from cough & cold and under medication having taken for shore diving and met with a mishap throws light on the kind of unfair practices risking life of persons for lure of money and damaging reputation of destination as a whole,” he said.
The Director added that instances have also come to notice that Dive Centers are conducting dive activities without supervision of the qualified Dive Instructor or Dive Master and also without proper briefing of the risk associated with it.
“Similarly, on emergency situations, efforts are lacking from some Dive Centers to timely inform agencies concerned as per the approved Emergency Action Plan for rescue and support. The tendency of leaving tourists in distress unattended speaks against us the Islanders as a whole. It is unfortunate that though Dive Centers have insurance cover for their customers no effort seems to be coming to provide insurance benefit to such tourists who had met with dive accident,” the Director added.
