Sarthak Kanjilal
Port Blair, June 08: The passengers of Mainland vessel MV Swaraj Dweep, who travelled from Vizag to Port Blair, refused to disembark from the ship today, in protest of the suffering, they had to undergo, during the present journey, due to alleged pathetic condition of the ship.
According to reports, the main reason behind the protest was delay in the sailing of the ship from Vizag and the problems faced by the passengers to purchase the ship tickets, due to alleged black marketing of ship tickets in Vizag.
As per the reports, the embarkation time of the passengers was 6 pm from Vizag but due to some faults in the ship, the passengers were made to wait for the whole night at the Vizag Jetty. “Nearly 12 hours we were in the Vizag jetty with children, if there was a change of schedule the department should have informed us,” said an angry passenger of the ship.
Not only this many passengers alleged that Air-Condition was not working in the ship and the quality of food was of very low grade.
Taking the matter seriously, the Director of Shipping Services came to the spot and requested the passengers to disembark and register their complaints in written.
However talking to Andaman Sheekha, the Councillor of Telugu Desam Party Mr Azizur Rehman said that the ship MV Swarajdweep has recently come from Annual Passenger Ship Survey and the shipping department has spent crore for APS but still the condition of the ship is pathetic.
He further said that the Party will now take up the matter in the Ministry and will demand an inquiry.
Meanwhile, the Director met with public and canteen people in the evening in his chamber but the details about the meeting was not shared with media.
The protest later ended at around 1 pm today.
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