John Wilbert
Port Blair, Apr 18: On one hand the vegetable prices in Port Blair city is making holes in the pockets of Islanders and on the other hand farmers and vegetable vendors are often failing to send vegetables to Port Blair by DSS vessels.
Such lack of coordination is not only causing loss to famers and vegetable vendors but also resulting in sky rocketing of vegetable prices in Port Blair city. It is learnt that a good amount of vegetables often perish due to such negligence.
Wise men say that all kind of loss is ultimately a national loss and in this case the loss is ultimately putting extra burden in people of Port Blair as someone has to pay for these losses.
Although vegetable are often brought by small dinghies but the small dinghies are not reliable in bad weather conditions. Hence DSS vessels are often the first choice to send vegetable to Port Blair but farmers of Neil Island allege that without giving proper reasons often the Captain of the DSS vessels refuse to take vegetables, which causes huge loss.
When contacted the Deputy Director of Shipping, Mr. R Veeraiah told Andaman Sheekha that this happens due to lack of communication. In most of the occasions the farmers inform the DSS staffs in advance about the amount of vegetable to be sent from Neil to Port Blair but in some cases it has also been seen that huge quantity of vegetables are dumped at the jetty for which no advance information is given to the DSS and hence it becomes impossible to carry all loads, considering the safety of passengers and carrying capacity of the vessel.
He said that the solution of the problem is that the farmers must inform DSS in advance that how much quantity of vegetable will be kept at Neil Island jetty for transportation so that the DSS can make alternative arrangement.
Andaman Sheekha hopes that the PRI members of Neil Island will take lead in this case and coordinate this matter well in DSS so that farmers of Neil Island do not suffer loss and vegetables do not perish for such negligence.
