Sarthak Kanjilall
Port Blair, April 05: The owners of fishing and tourist boats are under huge stress as the lockdown may cost them huge.
According to the boat owners, they are supposed to bail out the water coming inside the boats every 03-04 days otherwise the boat will either sink or the engine of the boat may suffer heavy damages but due to the lockdown, they are unable to take care of their boats through which they run their livelihood and provide employment of local youths.
Talking to Andaman Sheekha, tourist boat owner of MV Sea Cruise and MV Island Cruise, Mr. Bharat Sharma said that one of his boats namely MV Pearl has already sunk in the Junglighat jetty because he was unable to bail out water that came inside the vessel during the lockdown.
“I have two more boats MV Sea Cruise and MV Island Cruise that worth crores currently berthed in the Junglighat Jetty, if the administration won’t allow me to bail out water from the boat, both of my boats will surely sink,” Mr. Sharma said.
Mr. Sharma further added that it’s around one week since he has requested for permission from the DC South Andaman to let him and his staff visit the vessel but he has received no response yet.
Further talking to Andaman Sheekha, a Fisherman namely, Rakesh Narayan said that they are supposed to clean the engines of their boats with normal water after every 04-05 days of gap otherwise the engine will get rusted and will require maintenance but as they are not allowed to go outside, they are unable to do so.
“Being a small fisherman we must be allowed to take care of our boats otherwise this lapse will cost us badly,” said Mr. Narayan.
