DJ Venkatesh
Port Blair, Oct 16: A lot has been said about community policing and friendly policing but in reality some of the steps taken by Andaman Nicobar police are leaving Islanders, especially youths, deeply upset.
One of the issues is driving youths from GPRS hotspot areas like criminals. Presently anybody standing in front of Raj Niwas or at ANIIDCO road are being harassed by Andaman Nicobar police, public allege.
Yesterday a group of people had a very bitter experience when police jawan reportedly took mobile phones, from people who were surfing internet standing at Raj Niwas approach road area.
Youths were shocked to see such act of police in free India, where police jawans were behaving like British rulers.
Everybody knows that internet speed is horrible in Andaman Nicobar Islands and people who are having broadband are also struggling with Internet speed, forget about those who are using GPRS service.
Fortunately there are only few spots in Port Blair city where common man can also stand and get high speed internet in mobile but sadly those areas are around Raj Niwas and hence people are facing the wrath of Police Jawans.
The area in front of Raj Niwas and behind Raj Niwas is believed to be the only place in Port Blair city where one can get very high speed internet and that is the reason why large number of people can be seen standing in the area to perform much needed online works, like downloading job applications, paying online bills etc.
But this is sad to note that instead of helping the people, the Andaman Nicobar police is harassing them by driving them away like criminals or taking away their mobile phones.
When people argued the reply from police department was that the area around Raj Niwas is under Section 144 but sadly there is no sign board regarding that.
On one hand the Andaman Nicobar administration is making everything online on the other hand the Internet is horrible in Andaman and where ever users are getting high internet speed they are being harassed and driven away by the authorities, which is a shameful act.
Talking to Andaman Sheekha some youths say that they are not sure if the Lt. Governor has any knowledge about this issue that how Islanders are treated like A & N Police.
Youth demand that the Lieutenant Governor should come forward in this matter and ask the authorities to help the youths to sit in a very organised manner in areas where there is high internet speed instead of driving them away from the areas.
In today’s age Internet necessary like water connection as most of the services are going online, under this circumstances such behavior of police is not acceptable.
If administration cannot provide proper internet in all the places then the administration do not have any right to drive away people from the places where they get some high speed internet.
After all users are spending their own money to buy their own data pack and they are not stealing data pack from government.
