Sarthak Kanjilall & John Wilbert
Port Blair, Feb 27: After a youth of the Islands died on 23rd Feb 2020 while swimming in the rough sea at Corbyn’s Cove, the eyes of the District Administration is opened.
Since the incident has taken place the District Administration is confused as to why the youths were allowed to swim in the rough sea even after the presence of lifeguards and Tourist Safety Enforcement Teams in tourist spots especially beaches and hence, the district administration is now becoming strict to avoid such tragedies, which resulted in bringing enormous trouble for hundreds of tourists today.
After this tragedy, a team of district administration was instructed to visit all spots to check whether there is safety at sea for tourists or not following which a team visited Aberdeen Port recently and found many tourist boat operators, boarding passengers, without making them wear the Life Jacket.
This report with photographs was when reported to the DC South Andaman, he took disciplinary steps immediately against the tourist boat operators and suspended their boat services for 02 days from today, without giving any prior notice to the stakeholders, making hundreds of tourists to suffer but sadly no accountability has been fixed against the TSET team of the administration whose onus is to check whether rules are being followed promptly by the tourist boat operators every day.
“We are here in the pristine Islands for a week and visiting Ross- North is in our schedule, we are waiting here since morning to go to the spot but no boats are operating, if there are any issues between the boat operators and administration it must be sorted out between them, why are they making us suffer, we have paid for this service,” said a tourist from Kolkata maintaining secrecy.
If the TSET team would have done their job properly since the beginning this might have never happened.
Andaman Sheekha has learned that the tourist boat operators have been asked to give an undertaking in two days that they will comply with the rules and regulations under Andaman and Nicobar Island Vessel Rules, 2016, following which they will be allowed to start their operations.
Now the million dollar question is that after causing so much loss to boat operators and inconvenience to tourists, what action has been taken on the TSET team by the Deputy Commissioner of South Andaman.
