DJ Venkatesh
Diglipur, Dec 09: The Doordarshan Kendra Port Blair’s ‘Dweep Darpan’ Programme has become a great hit in Diglipur region. The Gram Panchayat Subhash Gram has started airing the programme through PA System, installed in various locations of Diglipur Bazaar. As radio signal is weak in the entire area, people in the region take great interest in listening to the programme through PA system and usually gather around these mikes in the evening hours.

Talking to Andaman Sheekha the Pradhan of Subhash Gram, Mr. P R Singaram today demanded relay of Dweep Darpan even on Saturdays and Sundays. “If DDK telecast the program even on Saturdays and Sundays then it would be beneficial for public of this remote Island,” he said.

Complaining about very poor radio signals he said that Radios are not working in the entire region for more than two years because of poor signal. “If signal is so poor in Diglipur Bazaar area, one can imagine what would be the condition in remote villages,” he said. The pradhan also demanded immediate repair of AIR’s transmission towers.

 

 

Kanak Paul
Diglipur, Dec 09: Two Ashoka Trees, which were standing tall in front of the Forest office of Diglipur for more than 12 years, have been ordered to cut down by the Deputy Forest Officer, Diglipur for unknown reasons.

The trees which were standing tall all these years were the main attraction of office, and were also adding charm to the office. Not only this, the DFO has also allegedly put the timber on sale at office at the rate of Rs.435.00 per Lot. Sadly no one knows in which account the amount is deposited. One lot is already sold while other lots still remain at the office. The forest department generally encourages people to grow trees but what prompted the DFO to cut down these trees, is still a mystery.

 

Senthil Kumar & Mohammed Sajid
Port Blair, Dec 02: The Andaman PWD supplies water to majority of residents in Rangat from a Well situated under the Rangat Bridge. But the water source has become a constant source of fear among residents of Rangat, who strongly believe that the water source may trigger an epidemic in the entire area, at any point of time.

According to the villagers the Well is situated in a low lying area near Rangat nallah and during heavy rain the nallah swells and all muddy and dirty water of the nallah come inside the well. A large number of people dump garbage on the said nallah on daily basis and all these darbage goes inside the well after every spell of heavy rain in Rangat Area, triggering the fear of contamination of drinking water. Not only this a large number of people answers to nature’s call sitting along the nallah everyday and all these human waste come inside the said well, in case of flooding.

The matter was taken up with the APWD by people of Rangat in many occasions in past but till now nothing has been done by the APWD to ensure total protection of the most prominent source of drinking water of Rangat Area. According to reports from the said well APWD supplies water to Mithila, Sabri, Sitapur and Yerretta areas.

Andaman Sheekha has photographs, which shows how water from nearby nallah covers the said well, contaminating drinking water, after heavy spell of rain. This is the reason why often muddy water is supplied by APWD to Rangat Residents.

Andaman Sheekha contacted Mr. Balram Singh, SE, APWD to know the reasons behind such negligence. Mr. Balram Singh informed this reporter that he has just joined as SE but after consulting with the officials he said that the tank is completely sealed and there is no question of muddy water coming into the water source. He further added that he has instructed the concerned officials to look into the matter and take necessary action.

 

D J Venkatesh
Port Blair, Nov 21: On one hand the Andaman and Nicobar Administration is conducting massive disaster drill and one the other hand a single uprooted tree, has showed the level of disaster preparedness by blocking Andaman Trunk Road, the life line of A & N Islands, for eleven long hours today.

According to report, a Gurjun tree measuring about 35 metres fell on ATR road at Haribay between Mayabunder and Diglipur yesterday night at 2PM. The Asst. Commissioner got the information in the morning 7 am. He along with other revenue staffs comprising R.I. Manoj Kumar,R.I. Gafoor Ali, and three staffs from Police Fire Service (along with Portable Chain Saws), Two J.E. from APWD along with 20 personnel, S.I from P.S. Kalighat reached the spot. Forest Rangers from Aerial Bay and Mayabunder also attended the site.

Due the felling of the tree the ATR was completely blocked and both the side the vehicles were stranded along with all the passenger buses. The hand sawing tools, brought by forest department were of no use to cut the tree.

Using the portable chain saw and using all available resources the team however able to clear the road at about 1 PM today. A Special Convey through Jarawa area was made available for the stranded vehicles. All the bus passengers of Express buses from Diglipur side felt uneasy as they were supposed to take their breakfast at 6 am at Rest camp at Mayabunder but didn’t even get water at that place.

With all available resources the administration finally cleared the road at 1 PM. Speaking to Andaman Sheekha the Asst. Commissioner Dr. Vivek Kumar said that ‘Due to small chain saw it took about 5 hours to complete the task. If big and better equipments are made available then those will be useful to deal with such incidents in future as the disaster never comes by knocking. He said that the District Administration has now decided to purchase such big and better equipments. In the last one month three such incidents have been reported from North Andaman region.

To be critical such delay is unacceptable considering the fact that Andaman already has a massive department called Disaster Management with sufficient funds. On the positive node, the efforts of the officers and workers to clear the road, using only small chain saws, must be lauded.

 

DJ Venkatesh
Diglipur, Nov 14: The larger population of Diglipur is dependent upon agricultural and farming but the main Vegetable market where they have to sale their produces is becoming over-crowded day by day. The space available for the market is grossly inadequate all the vegetable vendors. Things are becoming too difficult for those farmers, who survive only by selling their produce daily in the market.

At present, the Gram Panchayat Subhash Gram is managing the vegetable market by collecting tax from the vendors. The Vegetable Market of Diglipur Bazaar was constructed more than 25 years ago and at that time it was having sufficient space for vegetable vendors.
The population of Diglipur has increased manifold in last 25 years and it is now more than thrice of the population when the building of Vegetable market was constructed. Now the situation is un-manageable with the same building to accommodate all the permanent Vegetable vendors as well as the daily sitters.
There are about 41 permanent vendors & more than 70 daily sitting farmers. The 70 % area of the Building has been occupied by the permanent vendors and the daily sitting farmers are forced to sell their produces in open area even during rain or under scorching Sun. Customers are also facing difficulties due to lack of space. The season of vegetable is going to start from end of November and will last upto March, during this period police is also unable to handle the crowd and the farmers are forced to sit on the roads to sell their produces.

Due to lack of sitting space in market, the daily sitting farmers who usually sell their products at cheap rates are forced to sell their produces to the permanent vendors who finally sell these produces at higher rates to the customers. Ultimately the customers are being cheated by the permanent Vegetable Vendors in Diglipur, they cunningly purchase the products of daily sitters by saying them “it is better to sell your products to us at whole-sale rate otherwise it will be damaged at the end of the day”. The innocent farmers has no option rather than to sale their produces in very cheap rate which is called as whole sale rate. The permanent sitting vendors are taking undue advantage of this situation.

It is a well known fact that Maximum vegetables in Andaman & Nicobar Islands are produced in Diglipur Sub-division. Vegetables are exported to all the areas like Billyground, Rangat, Kadamtala, Bhatubasti, Aberdeen Bazaar etc. areas by the permanent vendors from Diglipur but the public of Diglipur are forced to buy vegetables at higher rates.

This is high time for the Administration & Gram Panchayat to provide separate space to the daily sitting vegetable vendors so that they can individually sale their products without any interference of the permanent Vegetable Vendors. In this way the overall price of vegetable will come under total control, benefitting public.

 

Trinath & Muralidharan Pillai
Port Blair, Nov 14: In a major accident, which took place today at Jaipur Village, near Nimbudera, a STS bus nosedived into a road side muddy drain following some kind of breakdown in the spring suspensor unit. According to passengers the situation could have been worse but due to quick response demonstrated by the driver, almost ‘out of control’ bus was carefully diverted towards the muddy and bushy area, which saved many precious lives.

According to reports, the Express-A bus left Mayabunder at 5.15 am with 30 passengers onboard but when the bus reached near Jaipur village the spring suspensor of the bus broke-down, leaving the bus totally out of control. According to the passengers the driver of the STS Bus, Mr. Kumar demonstrated exemplary courage as well as skills and took the bus on the right side of the road knowing fully well that on the left side there is a deep well and also electric poles. Finally the Bus was made to nosedive carefully inside the muddy drain. Due to the efforts of the driver, none of the 30 passengers suffered any injury. The matter was immediately reported to PS Billyground and passengers were sent to their destination in other buses.