Muralidharan Pillai
Mayabunder, Nov 08: Hon’ble Justice A.K. Patnaik , Judge, Supreme Court of India, in presence of the Hon’ble Justice Arun Mishra, Chief Justice ,High Court at Calcutta, the Hon’ble Justice Jyotirmay Bhattacharya, Judge, High Court at Calcutta & Judge -in-Charge, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, today laid the foundation stone for District Court Building at Mayabunder. The Deputy Commissioner of North and Middle Andaman, Mr. Sanjay Kumar was also present on the occasion.

 

DJ Venkatesh

Diglipur, Nov 06: Following reports published by Andaman Sheekha on 5th November 2013, regarding the survival story of three fishermen of Diglipur and damage of their fishing dinghy, the Assistant Commissioner of Diglipur, Dr. Vivek Kumar has now written a letter to the Director of Fisheries Department requesting him to release compensation for the damaged dinghy.

In his letter the Assistant Commissioner has mentioned that he had attended the inspection of damaged machine Dinghy No. IND-AN-MN-MO/323 at East Island.

“The Dinghy was drowned due to very high waves in the recent cyclonic weather. The fishermen went in the sea fishing before the forecasting news of bad weather was received. They were entrapped at East Island, their dinghy was drowned and they took shelter into the police chowki. After the cyclonic weather stopped, they were brought back to Diglipur through another Dinghy and the drowned Dinghy was recovered after some days, which is still stationed at East Island,” Dr Vivek Kumar added.

He added that the wooden body of the dinghy is damaged totally, which is irreparable and the main trunk of the Dinghy which is made up with single piece of log has also been broken and it is irreparable.

“These Poor fishermen’s only means of earning is fishing and all the available apparatus along with his dinghy was totally destroyed in cyclonic weather. His case may be considered sympathetically and may be provided maximum possible assistance from the department,” he added.

 

Muralidharan Pillai & DJ Venkatesh

Mayabunder, North Andaman, Nov 05: An Assistant Engineer of North Andaman Construction Division (NACD), Andaman PWD has been arrested this afternoon from Mayabunder Islands of North Andaman while allegedly accepting bribe of Rs 8,000 for processing bills of a contractor.

“The contractor had lodged a complaint that Mr. N Thirumal, the Assistant Engineer of Electrical and Mechanical Section, North Andaman Construction Division, APWD is demanding Rs. 8,000 for clearing his bills,” sources told ‘Andaman Sheekha’ on the condition of anonymity.

Following this complaint a trap was set and a team from Anti-Corruption unit of A & N Islands was sent to Mayabunder Island of North Andaman to catch the Assistant Engineer.

“He was arrested while accepting Rs. 8,000 from the private contractor,” sources added.

This is second such arrest by Anti-Corruption unit of Andaman and Nicobar Police in last one month.

According to reports the arrested Assistant Engineer was brought to Port Blair today and will be produced to Hon’ble Special Court at Port Blair tomorrow.

 

Trinath & Tarun Kartick
Billyground, Nov 05: “Road to Hell” is the name given by public to a stretch of road running down from Panchayat Bhavan at Hariagar to Jonardhan Roy’s House at Ward No. 4 of Harinagar Gram Panchayat.
The road is in such a bad shape that people fear crossing the road even in two wheelers.
According to the villagers they have approached the pradhan of the area numerous times to get the repair works done but the pradhan of the area informed them that the road is presently under the Panchayat Samiti and he cannot spend his funds on repairing the road.
After that the villagers approached the Samiti Member of the area, who is also the Pramukh of the region, a number of times but it also did not fetch them fruitful results. Finally the villagers raised the question about the road in the Gram Sabha Meeting but the Pramukh was unable to answer to their questions.
During the recent visit of the Lt Governor to the region the residents had raised the matter infront of him and the LG on the spot asked the Adyksha , Zilla Parishad and the Pramukh for the reasons for delay upon which they explained that 70% of the funds goes to the pradhan and the samiti does not have sufficient funds as required for the maintenance works for the road.
The LG had immediately directed them to transfer the road to the Pradhan of the region if they are not able to maintain it with their funds and not to keep the public suffering.
After the LG direction the villagers felt relived as they thought the work will now be completed soon but it’s been months but still even the tender for the work is not announced and the villagers are still suffering with the same problems.
Neither an auto nor a four wheeler can pass through the Road to Hell as there is always a fear of accidents. The road is the life line for Ward No. 4 and 5 of Harinagar Gram Panchayat but still the authorities are not taking the repair work of the road, seriously. Hope the road will be repaired before the next visit of Lt. Governor.

Will DGP assure Justice to poor fishermen? 

 

Senthil Kumar
Rangat, Oct 20: In a shocking incident, exhibiting highest level of cruelness and insensitivity towards fellow human beings, crew members of an unidentified cargo vessel, had almost killed three fishermen of Rangat Bay area.

According to these fishermen, the unknown cargo vessel rammed and crushed their fishing boat recently and escaped from the crime scene. All three fishermen jumped off to safety and clung on to an Ice Box for almost 30 minutes before being rescued by fellow fishermen.

“They ran away and did not feel necessary to save three human beings, who were about to die,” alleged one of the fishermen.

Things happened so fast that these fishermen could not note the name or any other details about the cargo vessel. “That was a big cargo vessel and we can identify it easily,” he said.

These fishermen have already lodged a complaint in Rangat Police Station but they are yet to get any answer.

Fishermen now fear that as the owner of cargo vessels are usually rich guys, police will take this case to lightly and they would probably never get justice.
“The Police Department must register a case of attempt to murder in this regard and the DGP must direct the Police Station to trace out the cargo vessel and book all the crew members,” said a relative of one of the fishermen.