Sheekha Bureau
Port Blair, Dec 12: The Andaman Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) today said that post Cyclonic Storm Vardah hundreds of tourists have landed in Neil and Havelock Islands, which shows that normalcy has returned in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The ACCI has expressed gratitude towards Andaman and Nicobar Administration, Defence Forces, the Deputy Commissioner of South Andaman, the Director of Tourism for their role in handling the situation which was created because of cyclone Vardah and also for their role in evacuating all stranded tourists to Port Blair.
The Chamber also thanked the hoteliers, resort owners, travel agents and tour operators at Havelock, Neil and Port Blair, who during this tough time have gone out of their way to ensure that all assistance were extended to the tourists to ensure their safety and well being.
“We would like to thank and put on record our appreciation to all the officers of Port Management Board, Andaman & Nicobar Police especially the Dy. S.P., Havelock and his team, Tourism, Health Departments, Disaster Management & Office of the Deputy Commissioner (SA), Airlines, Airport Authority and CISF for their cooperation,” a release from ACCI said.
However, the ACCI has expressed serious concerns over the matter that in certain press releases and media the word ‘rescue’ has been used thereby a panic situation has been created which has also resulted in negativity.
“The tourists during this period were absolutely safe and sound and were being well looked after,” said Mr. Girish Arora, the President of Andaman Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI).
Although a large number of tourists are still going to Havelock and Neil Islands, a good number of bookings are also getting cancelled largely because of Vardah impact on Chennai and also because of fear among some tourists because of reports in some National News Channel, which presented situation in Andaman as a major crisis, which is far from truth.
Despite ACCI’s claims, there are also reports about harassment of tourists at Havelock Island during Vardah Cyclone by some hoteliers and shopkeepers.
“This is sad to see that during crisis some hotel and shop owners were exploiting tourists. We have got reports that some hotels doubled rate of rooms at the time of Vardah and some shops even increased rate of drinking water to Rs 50 per bottles, which is injustice,” claimed Mr. Sanjay Meshak, the Convener of Aam Admi Party (AAP).
