Port Blair, Jan 16: The lone Member of Parliament of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Mr. Bishnu Pada Ray has expressed his deep concern over the fact that in the existing Island Development Authority (IDA) committee constituted for A & N Islands, the MP and other Panchayati Raj Institute Members have not been given place as members.
Mr. Bishnu Pada Ray, Member of Parliament recently called on the Cabinet Secretary at Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi and highlighted this point along with other issues of Andaman.
Mr. Ray pointed out that the UT of A& N Islands is not having Assembly and the existing IDA committee constituted for this UT Islands is not consisted with MP or PRIs of this UT Islands.
“Thereby, the decisions of IDA in regard to various development aspects of the UTs are without consultation of MP & PRIs, resulted in which, most of the development works are apparently found against the interest of the general Public,” Ray informed media today.
Ray suggested for inclusion of the name of Member of Parliament and other elected PRIs in IDA Committee for betterment of these far flung Islands.
Keeping the remoteness of the Islands, the Central Government of India, had decided to set up Island Development Authority (IDA) in 1986, to decide on policies and programme for integrated environmentally sound development of the Islands.
The IDA was established in 1986 under the chairmanship of the then Prime Minister of India, Mr. Rajiv Gandhi.
Over the years the IDA has lost charm and weight mainly because of negligence and lack of time of top leaders of Government of India for remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The last IDA meeting was held in July 24, 2017, which was chaired by the Home Minister of India, Mr. Rajnath Singh.
Admiral D.K. Joshi, the Lt. Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Vice Chairman of IDA and other Members of the IDA including Cabinet Secretary, Home Secretary, Secretary (Environment, Forests and Climate Change), Secretary (Tourism) and Secretary (Tribal Welfare) also participated in the meeting.
Other points raised by MP includes, promulgation of specific provisions for deputation/posting of Inter-state cadre officers and All India other Service officers like IFS, IFoS, IES, IIS, ITS, etc. in the UT of Andaman & Nicobar Islands as a special case.
The 2nd, 3rd and 4th Finance Commission recommendation to increase the fund to PRI and Councilors has not been implemented so far, thereby the PRIs and PMBC Councilors are facing fund crisis for undertaking developmental activities within their Constituencies and Wards.
Ray further expressed that the Rural as well as the urban roads are in horrible condition and the achievement is very negligible. In response to that the Cabinet Secretary informed the Secretary, RD Mr. Amarjeet Sinha to review the issue and to depute a team to Andaman for assessing the progress of PMGSY works.
Apart from the above, Bishnu Pada Ray also discussed about augmentation of OFC-V-Set for improvement of broadband connectivity and also to increase the numbers of Towers in A&N Islands.
