John Wilbert
Port Blair, Sept 06: The one day Andaman Bandh, called by Joint Action Forum (JAF) today got tremendous response from all over Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
According to reports along with Port Blair in all major Islands like Diglipur, Mayabunder, Rangat, Billyground, South Andaman areas, Havelock etc Islands, 99 percent of the shops were kept closed and private buses as well as autos remained off the road.
In all major junctions in Port Blair and other Islands hundreds of youths gathered to show their support for the demand for implementation of Inner Line Permit. In many places there were unconfirmed reports of obstructing private vehicles by youths because of which roads remained mostly deserted.
However, the buses of State Transport Services were the only respite for general public as far as movement in different part of Islands is concerned.
A massive rally was meanwhile organized in the afternoon by Joint Action Forum from Port Blair, which went upto Garacharma area and returned back. Thousands of youth participated in the rally. Later in the evening a public meeting was organized at Tiranga Park of Port Blair in which leaders of Joint Action Forum and Local Born Association reiterated the demand of Implementation of Inner Line Permit to check influx in these Islands.
Due to cancellation of private buses in North and Middle Andaman route since yesterday night many ATR passengers suffered heavily.
Many tourists, who had a return flight from Port Blair today also had to face worst time as there were no auto or tourist vehicles on road and they had to walk all the way to Airport.
