DJ Venkatesh
Diglipur, Jan 15: Tamizhar Sangam Diglipur organized various pragrammes on occasion of Pongal yesterday at Tamizhar Sangam Diglipur. The programme started with lightning of the lamp my Mr. K.Srinivasan, Adhyaksh Zilla Parishad, N & M Andaman followed by a prayer song and welcome dance.
During the programme various competitions which were held during the two days viz Essay competition, Elocution and drawing competition, Thirukkural Recitation, Devotional songs competition, Musical Chair, Needle and thread race, spoon race, Balloon race, Running race , Cycle race prizes were distributed.
The programme was presided over by Mr. P R Singaram, Pradhan, Subhash gram.
Earlier Mr. L N Raju welcomed the gathering while Mr. S Gurumoorthy Principal GSSS Diglipur delivered especial address. Asst Engineer Mr. Sidddappa, Ex Pramukh Nagen Haldar ZP member Anil Mondal also participated the programme.

The Chief Guest Dr. Vivek Kumar Asst. Commissioner, Diglipur in his speech highlighted the significance of Pongal Festival.

 

Diglipur, Jan 08: In a significant and welcome move the Deputy Commissioner of North and Middle Andaman, Mr. Sanjay Kumar has directed all the HoDs of N & M Andaman region to adopt the system of self attestation /Self Certification In their respective departments for all the necessary purposes.
Andaman Sheekha on 26June 2013 had published that the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and pensions, Department of Administrative reforms & Public Grievances , Govt. of India, New Delhi vide office memorandum number No. K-11022/67/2012-AR, dated 10th May, 2013 has stated that the Second Administrative Reforms Commission in its 12th report titles “Citizen Centric Administration –The Heart of Governance”, has recommended, adoption of self-certification provision for simplifying procedure.
Citing the order the DC has now issued a circular in which he said that provision of self-certification of documents like marksheets, birth certificate etc. by the applicants or stakeholders instead of asking for an attested copy of the documents by a Gazetted Officer of filing of affidavit to be adopted. Under the self attestation method, the original documents are required, to be produced at the final stage. The said method is citizen friendly and obtaining either an attested copy or affidavit involves wastage of time of the citizens and the Government officials.
“Several general people specifically unemployed youths have reported to the undersigned time and again that many Gazetted officers of various departments of the district have been denying attesting the certificates/documents on the pretext of wastage of their time thereby creating unnecessary hardship/grievances to general people,” the DC added.
However the DC has clearly mentioned that in case where attestation is considered necessary, the concerned head of the office shall do the needful for attestation of documents in their concerned head of the office itself after verifying the originals instead of sending the people to other officer.
“The applicant shall be liable for punishment under the provision of IPC sections 199 & 200, if it is discovered later of that the self-citification/attestation made by the applicant is false. The above instructions shall be adhered strictly without fail,” the DC added.
This is a welcome move of the DC of North and Middle Andaman and Andaman Sheekha hopes that soon entire A & N Administration will follow the same system.

 

DJ Venkatesh
Diglipur, Jan 08: Yash Raj Films Dhoom- 4 movie has not been planned yet but a Tipper Truck at Diglipur Island today exhibited Dhoom – 4 style of stunts.

The Truck, bearing registration number AN-01, B 6523, was carrying excessive loads of Steel Rods for some construction site of MES and when the Truck was coming out of the Aerial Bay Jetty and was crossing a speed breaker, the front portion of the truck went upward and was hanging on mid-air while the rear half was touching ground with the excessive load of steel rods.

Thankfully the incident took places outside the Aerial Bay Jetty otherwise the truck would have fallen into the sea. Later the tipper was taken to Aerial Bay Police Outpost.

Overloaded trucks continue to break rules freely in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, putting lives of innocent people at risk. Such overloaded truck had caused many deadly accidents in these Islands in recent past but it seems that no one has learnt any lesson yet.

On 27 March 2012 Two labourers died today when hundreds of steel rods from a heavily overloaded truck spilled on road and also over the labourers, who were sitting on the truck with those steel rods.

Again on March 30, 2013, a private truck laden with stone dust overturned near Swaraajgram, Diglipur resulting in on the spot death of eight persons and seriously injuring to two persons and minor injuries to seven others.

It seems that Administration is waiting for some more such fatal accident before taking any strict action against such open violation of law.

 

Trinath
Port Blair, Jan 03: It appears that these remote Islands have no dearth of talents. While a good number of sportspersons have already brought laurels for our Islands there are many budding sportspersons, who are waiting for their turn.

Meet Priyanka Das, the 13 year old running sensation of Harinagar Village of Middle Andaman. Priyanka Das has already left her mark in Islands’ sports arena by winning four gold medals in recent State School Games. Out of these four gold medals, three were from individual medals in cross country race 5 Km, 800 mtr and 1500 mtr race while the fourth medal was shared with three others in 4×400 mtr relay race. Her performance was so impressive that the girl was declared as State Champion in Athletics of State School Games.

Adding more feathers to her crown, the little girl of class VIII also bagged the first prize in women section of Billyground Marathon, conducted by NGGO Association recently.

Priyanka’s father Panchanan Das, a resident of Harinagar village is a farmer and often works as DRM in various departments, wherever he gets an opportunity to work.

Though he is very proud of his daughter but is also worried about her future because he has no mean to arrange funds for her future training in athletics.

Villagers of Middle Andaman now urge the Lt. Governor to intervene into this matter and to direct the officials of Sports Authority of India to coach the little wonder for National and International Championships.

It is the responsibility of state to find and provide training to such rare sports talent. But this is unfortunate to note that neither the Department of Sports nor the Department of Education has any Athletic Coach in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Training in Athletic is considered as basic of all sports event as Athletic training helps sportspersons to gain stamina and strength. But in Andaman we don’t have even a single Athletic Coach.

Hope that Lt. Governor, who is himself a sports lover, will look into this matter and arrange an Athletic Coach for the PT Usha of Middle Andaman, as she is called by people of her area. Atleast the girl should be admitted in State Authority of India (SAI) so that she gets a National Level Coach for her trainings.

 

DJ Venkatesh
Diglipur, Dec 20: Mid-day meal, on one side brings cheers to the students of poor family but on the other side the suppliers in Diglipur, the DWAKRA groups, are facing the ire of the season.

As per rule from Class I to Class V, sanctioned amount of one day meal is Rs. 08.51 and for class VI to VIII, it is Rs. 09.75. As per law weekly twice boiled eggs have to be served to children by the suppliers without fail.

For eggs the DWACRA groups are getting Rs. 06.25 in Diglipur while the same DWACRA groups are getting Rs 7 at Mayabunder and Rs. 6.75 at Rangat. The difference is due to change in tender process in later places but sadly in Diglipur, the change was not adopted.

The rate Rs. 6.25 for eggs was okay earlier, when the supplier RSN provided eggs at the rate of Rs.5.25 to the groups when school session started. The cost was manageable to them as then the vegetable prices were also very low and they adjusted the loss on the eggs in vegetables.

But now RSN is now providing eggs at Rs. 05.75 to DWACRA groups and the vegetables prices are also skyrocketing. Apart from buying eggs these groups have to transport foods to various schools, which are located in remote places up to 35 KM from Diglipur bazaar and to the other Islands by water transport. Lots of eggs get damaged during this transportation.

Apart from this these eggs have to be boiled before distributing the same among children, which requires lots of Firewood and Kerosene Oil. After boiling more hands are needed to clean eggs.

In the Diglipur market eggs are available at Rs. 7/- in retail and last year in whole Andaman single rate was adopted by various schools but this year tender process adopted so many different rates.

Considering this the suppliers are finding it too difficult to supply eggs to school students and if this continues the suppliers will have to stop distribution of eggs to students, which will be a great loss to them.

In Andaman rate implementing authority for Mid- Day meal is the Principal Secretary Health. The local administration has to recommend amending prices for eggs or a supplementary price have to be released to bail out the suppliers for the time being as only three more months are left in this season. Subsequently a new method or rate can be adopted next year. For now the DWAKRA groups, which are already facing financial crunch, will be in deep soup.