Port Blair, Nov 10: Mr. Vishal Jolly, National Executive Committee Member BJP, Former State President BJP A&N Member of Home Ministry Advisory Committee, Govt. of India took up the burning issues pertaining to the Islanders as well as tourism industry through a letter addressed to Chief Secretary, A & N Administration and demanded restoration of Pre-Covid movement of public transportation, remove restrictions, increase number of boats for tourists as well as local inhabitants to providing hassle free environment to our islanders as well as to the tourists arriving in large numbers nowadays.
In his letter Mr. Jolly wrote that the Islanders as well as tourists are facing acute hardship and problems due to non availability of adequate number of boats to avail to and from journey for Swaraj Dweep, Shaheed Dweep, Little Andaman, Campbell Bay route, Diglipur, Mayabunder, Rangat, Baratang, Long Islands etc. Without increasing the number of passenger ship/boats adequately to satisfy the requirements of the general public as well as the tourism industry, the financial condition of the islanders cannot be rebuild and the people will continue to suffer irreparable losses he added.
Further he mentioned that the travelling restrictions are still very much in force for the movement of public in so far as inter islands are concerned. The incoming passengers from mainland requires merely two doses certificate indicating completion of 15 days of vaccination. Whereas for travelling to inter islands there exist other restrictions. All those travelling restrictions can be relaxed to the best possible way for encouraging the tourists and entrepreneurs. Apart from tourists, the local inhabitants of inter islands too are facing severe hardships due to unwanted travel restrictions, which may kindly be either waived or relaxed to the possible extent. Consequently, the number of Convoys also needs to be increased manifold.
Further he informed that almost two years, a ray of hope was sighted and my fellow islanders who are dependent upon the tourism industry got relief witnessing heavy tourist arrivals. Each of them had sustained heavy losses due to the pandemic and now when everything was appearing to get normalized, unfortunately the tourists are thrown out to face acute hardship in travelling upto various tourists destinations. This will send a wrong signal to the potential tourists who plan to visit these islands.
Mr. Vishal Jolly has requested to take appropriate steps in order to restore Pre-Covid movement of public and encourage tourists as well as tourism industry.
