John Wilbert
Port Blair, Sep 25: The Administration which is very much keen about the tourism in the islands has now become the reason behind the anger and frustration of some boat operators.
Recently an order was passed on 12 & 23 September by the Deputy Commissioner, South Andaman for the suspension of ferry services to Ross islands. Following which the boats namely M V Virath, Sea hawks, Ritikawin, Musafir, Island hop, M V Jaya, Jishitha and Humsafar were suspended from serving the sector.
In a meeting held on 25 September at Nakshatra Inn around 04pm the 08 boat operators whose boats were withheld from plying in the Port Blair waters had informed that on 24 Sep a meeting was held with the Chief Secretary, A&N Administration in which the delegation of boat operators were given assurance from the CS that the ferry operations will be resumed soon but to the utter surprise of the boat operators the order was kept intact. Also consequently the boat operators were waiting for the recall of the order dated 12/9/17 but next day we received a call from DC office asking us to appear at 3pm in evening. One of DC Office representative informed us that our seating capacity has been reduced from 29+4 to 22+4, said one of the boat operator”. Another boat operator informed “Operation of our catamarans has been hindered since 12th Sept following the suspension of registration certificates of our boats making us incur heavy financial losses besides causing inconvenience to the guests who had booked their seats with us.
Another order from the DC office says that the speed of our vessel should not exceed 8 knots. Non-technical officers passing such orders without consulting IRS is something unthinkable,” said another boat operator.
The Boat operators demanded to revoke the order and compensate them for the losses we have incurred all these days, he added.
