Sarthak Kanjilal
Port Blair, December 31: Call it a New Year gift for Islanders or Shipping Department’s new year resolution, the Directorate of Shipping Services is trying to press the sick vehicle ferry vessel MV Karmatang into service. The Vehicle Ferry will be operated between Chatham and Bambooflat.
Talking to Andaman Sheekha, the Deputy Director of Shipping Services, Mr R Veeraih said that nearly 80-85% of repair works of MV Karmatang has been completed and within a week or ten days the vessel will come into an operational state which will be operated between Chatham to Bambooflat.
MV Karmatang was purchased by the DSS long back but due to technical snags in the vehicle ferry vessel was not put into the service, which invited criticism for the department from all section of local society.
The news of another vehicle ferry in Bambooflat and Chatham sector will be a good news for thousands of people travelling on daily basis in this route.

Port Blair, Dec 31: The Port Blair Municipal Council, today the 31st December 2015 bid farewell to two of its employees namely Shri.Rampal Gobind, Higher Grade Clerk and Shri. Abdu, Work Assistant attached to Establishment section and Works section of the Council respectively.
At a simple function, the Senior Vice Chairperson, Smti S. Usha handed over all the cheques of retirement benefits including cash equivalent, gratuity and other monetary benefits.
The Sr. Vice Chairperson also presented mementoes to the retired employee. The Officials of the Council were also present on the occasion. While Speaking on the Occasion, the Administrative Officer of the Council recalled the valuable services rendered to the Council by the two employees and wished them happy and a healthy post retired life.

Port Blair, Dec 30: It was a historic and great moment not only for the Islanders, but also for the rest of the country as it was on this day, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose for the first time, as provincial head, hoisted the National Tri-colour and declared these Islands and the country Independent in 1943, at the historic Gymkhana ground now Netaji Stadium. To mark the occasion, a function was organized by the Department of Arts and Culture at the Netaji Memorial this morning.

The Lt. Governor, Lt Gen. A K Singh (Retd.) hoisted the National Flag in the presence of Shri Inderesh Kumar, Marga Darshak, FANS, the Member of Parliament, Shri Bishnu Pada Ray, the Chairperson PBMC, Smt. Sheela Singh, Smt. Sarla Singh, National Gen. Secy., FANS, Smt. Rupa Ray, Shri Vishal Jolly, State President, BJP, Shri Pradip Joshi, Kshetriya Pracharak, Shri Girish Arora, President, FANS A&N Chapter, prominent citizens and senior officers of the Administration. A team of 25 delegates from Forum for Awareness of National Security (FANS) also attended the function.

Addressing the gathering, the Lt. Governor recalled the significance of the day and the contribution of the heroes of our freedom struggle. He said that this was the soil on which inhuman tortures were meted over hundreds of freedom fighters who fought valiantly for the Independence of our country. It is a memorable day for every Indian, he said.

The Lt Governor described the occasion as a sacred moment for the Islands in particular and the nation as a whole. Responding to the suggestion putforth by Shri Inderesh, the Lt Governor said that from next year, the commemorative function will be conducted in a broad scale. He directed the Chief Secretary to prepare a detailed plan about the programme involving the Member of Parliament, the Heritage Committee and the local people especially the old inhabitants of these islands.

The Lt Governor further stated that the aspect of declaring December 30 as ‘Restricted Holiday’ can also be looked into. Moving one step further, the Lt Governor asked the Secretary Tourism to include Dec.30 in the Islands Tourism Map as an event and organize a cultural extravaganza to celebrate this joyous occasion which will also help in boosting tourism in Isles. The Lt Governor asked the Principal Secretary, PWD to make the ‘Memorial of December 30’ more attractive. Keeping a visitors book, creating a Water Proof Photo Exhibition can be included, the Lt. Governor suggested.

The Lt Governor further stated that though the islanders observe this commemorative function every year but the programme got a a national level stature due to the efforts of FANS.

In his address, the Shri Inderesh Kumarji, Marg Darshak, FANS and General Secretary, RSS described the moment as an auspicious one, as he was able to pay his respect to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose who hoisted the first National Tricolour from this very soil. He said, ‘there cannot be a better way to respect the patriots than this, when we are paying our tribute at a historical place where Freedom Fighters have made supreme sacrifices for the liberation/independence of our Motherland’. It is really painful to learn that the Freedom Fighters are known as ‘War Criminals’. Even Netaji Subhash has the tag of ‘War Criminal’ in United Nations Organization. This tag needs to be removed as early as possible. They are Freedom Fighters and food, shelter and clothing was not a problem for them and they fought for the country. Appreciating the merits of these Islands which is moving forward with happiness, prosperity, unity, integration and social harmony, Shri Inderesh urged for taking a pledge on this auspicious day to maintain all these good merits in the future.

In his address on the occasion, the Member of Parliament, Shri Bishnu Pada Ray described the occasion as a historic one and recalled the contribution of the heroes of our freedom struggle. He stated that the pre-42 locals donated a sum of Rs 10,000/- when Netaji visited these Islands in Dec. 30 in 1943. He further said, people also donated the Chief of INA a sum of Rs 5000/- before he left these islands during that period.

The students of Kendriya Vidyalaya No. 1 shouted slogans of Subhash Chandra Bose ‘Jai Hind’ ‘Tum Mujhe Khoon Do Mein Thumhe Ajadi Doonga’ which reverberated in the air.

Sarthak Kanjilal
Port Blair, December 30: The Ministry of Social Justice and empowerment is soon going to conduct a fresh survey in these Islands to identify differently abled in these islands for facilitating them with various schemes of Government of India.
Addressing a press conference at Megapode Nest today at 04:30pm, the Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Mr Krishnapal Gurjar who is on his first visit to these islands, stated that as per the census of 2011 there is nearly 6600 disabled persons in these islands and therefore it is required to conduct a fresh survey so that all the disabled persons can be facilitated with the various schemes of the government of India.
Further the Minister said that due to the sincere efforts of the present BJP government the economy of the country, the GDP of India is increasing and the inflation is decreasing. “By 2016-2017 we will be ahead of China in GDP growth rate,” Minister said.
Mr Gurjar further said that the Ministry of Social Justice and empowerment has selected 50 cities for Assessable India Campaign. Mr Gurjar also added that the ministry has started to issue a universal Identity Card to the disabled persons in the country so that they can get the same facilities anywhere in India, Mr Gurjar further added.

Sarthak Kanjilal
Port Blair, Dec 30: Nearly 45-50 Aayas working in Govind Ballab Pant Hospital under an outsourced agency, Gorkha Security Services have staged a dharna in front of DHS this morning, protesting against not getting salary from last three months.
The Aayas allege that they haven’t received the salary for last three months from Gorkha Security Services. Many broke into tears while talking to Andaman Sheekha.
“The outsourcing agency of DHS i.e Gorkha Security Services deducts Rs 840 every month from our salary in the name of Employees Provident Fund but they never gave us any receipt or paper regarding such deposits. If we ask them for receipt they refuse to give it and threaten to terminate us from job,” alleged a worker.
This is not the first time when the workers working under of Gorkha Security Services went on strike. Such strikes by workers working under GSS were seen twice this year.
However, Andaman Sheekha has learnt that the strike was withdrawn this afternoon after the workers got a written assurance from the company that by tomorrow they will receive all the pending salaries.
The question is why the Director of Health Services is silent in this issue? Why such agencies are given contract, which are openly exploiting poor employees? Are all rules of outsourcing followed by the private company? There are many question but no answer.
The Director of Health Service informed Andaman Sheekha through her PS that she is too busy to give reply in any media question. Surprisingly the Lt. Governor is always available to comment on any crucial issue but HoDs of his administration remain too busy to reply to simple question which are related to problems being faced by common man.

Staff Correspondent
Port Blair, Dec 29: While the District Administration of South Andaman is visibly leading the pack in introducing more electronic delivery of services to islanders under the Digital India scheme of the Govt. of India, sudden end of manual services in respect of nine services from the 1st of January next year in all likelihood will take a serious toll on residents of Neil Island, Havelock and Hut Bay, all under the jurisdiction of South Andaman region.
All the three inhabited islands have been long suffering from poor telecom and internet services and availing all the computerised services through Common Services Centres operating in the regions will become almost impossible for the residents.
To provide electronic delivery of services, the District Administration of South Andaman recently announced computerization of nine more computerised services that will be available at Common Service Centres and a e-Corners at the Tehsil Office, Port Blair and Ferrargunj.
The services include issue of Local Certificate, Senior Citizen Certificate, Solvency Certificate, Unemployment, Income certificate, NOC for Electric/Water, No-dues/Non Encumbrance, Origin certificate. The Deputy Commissioner, South Andaman also announced at the press conference that the District Administration will completely stop manual transaction of the nine services at the tehsil offices located in different parts of South Andaman.
The announcement, through welcomed by a majority of South Andaman residents, has not gone down well with the residents of Havelock, Neil Island and Hut Bay.
“Telephone and internet service, only 2G, is extremely poor in the three inhabited islands. There is no broadband and CSCs operating in these islands are doing nothing at all. Such being the situation of internet connection, availing the electronic services of the District Administration of South Andaman through CSCs is almost impossible,” said an Islander.
Residents will be forced to approach the District Office at Port Blair to get their works done after the closure of manual services at Tehsil Offices. The District Administration should mull over ways like providing better internet connectivity of VSAT Connectivity to the CSCs in the three islands before closing the manual services of the nine services.
“Till such time, the District Administration should continue the manual services at the Tehsil offices located in the three regions,” demand residents of Hut Bay.

Port Blair, Dec. 22: India is on the path of growth and prosperity once again, the Reserve Bank of India Governor, Dr. Raghuram G. Rajan stated this addressing the interaction meeting, he had with the students and academicians in the auditorium of DBRAIT today. Despite global difficulties and two successive weak monsoon, broadly speaking, India is moving forward, he said adding that the world is not growing at a faster pace and some of the largest country who were the engines of growth like China is faltering due to domestic difficulties. In this current scenario, we have to think, ‘how we should grow or move forward’, he said. Dr. Raghuram said, the Prime Minister has proposed the idea of ‘Make in India’, which certainly is a good move and we should not only make for our country but also for the rest of the world.
Praising the extraordinary developments taking place in the Islands, Dr. Raghuram said the Islands has a bright future. To achieve this, an integrated development plan is very much essential for these Islands to move towards the path of progress. “We should energise the people and if people can take the future in their hands then nothing can stop the Islands from prospering”, he added. Internet is a medium which absolutely is the way of the future for a place like Andaman and Nicobar Islands, he said citing example of Srinagar, where the weavers were looking for market to sell their products, are now using the internet to sell their products, not only in India but also foreign countries. The ‘Make in India’ concept can be adopted in A&N Islands by giving a thought what can be produced here which will have a good market in the rest of the country and world. He said, as Government as regulatory authority, what can be done is to create an environment, in which people can find out what makes sense and to achieve this a coordinated effort is needed.
Opining that unified market needs to be created, he said, if European Union can have unified markets then why can India adopt this concept of unified market.
Goods and Services Tax (GST) is something which will enormously benefit the country and Dr. Rajan expressed the hope that a political consensus will be reached to get it passed in Parliament. India is very close to achieving sufficient power generation but despite this capacity of power, he said, “we still have blackouts”. The first and foremost reason is that the distribution companies are unable to purchase the power because they are in debt. To deal with this situation, the Government has proposed a plan for the distribution companies to purchase power so that they are able to distribute the power benefiting the common man.
Dr. Rajan said cleaning up the bank’s balance sheet is very essential and for this, he urged the banks to take extra efforts. He expressed the hope that by the year 2017 much of the problems of the banks will be dealt with.
The Lt. Governor, Lt. Gen A.K. Singh (Retd) in his address said, India has really entered into the 21st century with great expectations, responsibilities and obligations. The present government at the Centre has taken dynamic steps with introduction of schemes for inclusion of all sections of the society such as ‘Jan Dhan Yojana’, ‘Bima Yojana’, ‘Mudra Bank’ etc. The Lt. Governor said, this will help in reducing the gap between the haves and have nots which is increasing rather widely in the country. The present impasse in Parliament is a obstacle for growth.
The Lt. Governor highlighted about the central fund allocated for the Islands. He said, this year, the A&N Island received a budgetary allocation of Rs.3800 crores and this is increasing steadily @10% every year. The Islands, in return generate a revenue less than 10% of the amount i.e. Rs.320 crore, the Lt. Governor said adding that this cannot be continued for long and steps needs to be taken to generate larger revenues to make the Islands self-reliant. This is a challenge, he said, and asked the Chief Secretary and Finance Secretary to take all the stakeholders into confidence and slowly built a road map where by 6 to 7 years atleast Rs.1000 crores of revenue can be generated from A&N Islands.
Later, the students and academicians from different schools, institutions, colleges raised queries on the present global scenario and on Indian economy.
The Chief Secretary, A&N Administration, Shri Anand Prakash, the Adhyaksha, Zilla Parishad, South Andaman, Smt. Minati Biswas, Senior Officers from the Civil Administration and Defence and a large gathering of students drawn from schools and colleges including faculty members attended the interaction programme.