Staff Correspondent
Diglipur, Mar 13: The Diglipur Bazaar bridge, which connect Madhupur, Laxmipur, Krishna Pur, Radha Nagar villages with main Bazaar area, has fallen victims of sheer negligence of Authorities.

According to report the Bridge was constructed long back on a sub-river of Kalpong, which has now become a dumping area for all shopkeepers and local residents.

Due to indiscriminate dumping of waste materials the movement of water has been blocked. Adding to the problems a huge log got stuck on the base of the bridge, which further blocked movement of river water. Now the stagnant water of the Kalpong’s sub-river has become a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

Residents fear that if the garbage and the log are not cleared immediately then the sub-river will get totally blocked and during monsoon the blocked water will put huge pressure on the base of the bridge, which can even damage the crucial bridge.

“The area stinks badly and it has become difficult to cross the bridge. Moreover there is also rise in mosquito population due to stagnant water at the base of the bridge,” complained a villager of Diglipur.

Photographs available with Andaman Sheekha clearly show stagnant water and the huge log, which is struck at the base of the bridge, since last seven months.

The District Administration and concerned Panchayat must immediately act to clean the base area of the bridge or during monsoon, this will surely create further problems for villagers.

 

Staff Correspondent
Port Blair, Mar 12: Youths associated with DARTED, an NGO and A2Z Travels of Diglipur Island, have taken a unique step and opened a free newspaper Reading Point at Diglipur.

An initiative by DARTED and A2Z Travels, the Reading Point is located at a prime location, in front of general pool office of Diglipur. At the reading point any villager can read newspapers free of cost. The service has been presently started with Andaman Sheekha, Daily.

Staff Correspondent
Diglipur, Mar 09: Villagers and political leaders today called a Bandh in Diglipur Island after the district Administration removed an Idol from a ‘temporary’ worship place on Friday early morning.

According to reports, the idol was recently placed, in an abandoned government quarter, by a group of Islanders of Diglpur Islands, which was viewed as an effort to encroach government land by District Administration.

Protesting public of Diglipur allege that the idol was removed on 8, May 2012 at 1.30 am and was placed in a nearby religious place of Diglipur Bazaar area.

Following this leaders of various political parties like TMC and BJP and Committee members of the religious place, called a Bandh at Diglipur Islands this morning.

By late afternoon when first round of talks failed almost all shops of second most prominent Island of A & N Chain, Diglipur, were closed and main road stretch was blocked. However, the Bandh failed to impact functioning of government schools and offices.

“We have only one demand, the Idol has to be brought back to the same place by District Administration and from there the idol will be shifted on the same day by the committee members as per their religious beliefs and customs,” Bishnu Pada Ray the Member of Parliament of Andaman and Nicobar Islands told ‘Adnaman Sheekha’ today.

Besides, BJP MP, many other leaders from BJP and TMC were leading the protest at Diglipur.

“The Assistant Commissioner of Diglipur Islands directed the police to remove the idol despite of the fact that we had already assured to shift the idol soon, as per ritual and religious beliefs” Naresh Halder, Zilla Parishad Member of Diglipur Islands, told ‘Andaman Sheekha’ today.

Till this evening, the District Administration remained adamant over the issue. “We are duty bound as there is a clear cut direction from Supreme Court that public land can not be occupied for religious purposes,” Sanjay Kumar, the Assistant Commissioner of Diglipur Island told ‘Andaman Sheekha’ over phone.

At late evening, the MP and some members of the Puja Committee have been called at Diglipur Guest House for a meeting with the Deputy Commissioner of North and Middle Andaman. When last report poured in the meeting was going on.

Is Administration waiting for a disaster??

Staff Correspondent

Diglipur, Feb 28: Last year a massive fire at Diglipur Bazaar, in the month of March, had chilled every residents of Diglipur to the bone. The accident, caught the Fire Services of Diglipur Pant down and showed how inadequate was the presence of Fire Service unit, in a region like Diglipur.

However, the fire couldn’t cause much damage as the fire tender of Andaman Nicobar Command had reached the spot to the rescue of Andaman and Nicobar Fire Services, which then had only one Fire Tender for entire Diglipur region.

After nearly one year, it looks as if the Administration has learnt no lesson from the past mistake. Diglipur, the second largest city ofAndamanandNicobar Islands, still have only one fire tender.

Infact the Fire Service has very thin presence inDiglipurIslandsand appears like and step child of A & N Police Department.

Though the Fire station in Diglipur was established way back in 1988, even after 24 long years, the fire service unit of Diglipur doesn’t have a permanent building. For Fire Services, long back a 0.10 Hcts land was allotted in front of PS Diglipur, but the land is still lying vacant.

Apart from station, there is no Quarter for fire personnel, a land of 5.54 Hect at Madhupur village was allotted for construction of quarters but that piece of land is also lying unutilized. Presently, fire personnel’s are staying in the dormitories of Diglipur Police Station.

This is hard to understand that how the Fire Services is planning to tackle any major fire accident in future as in case of fire accident, it takes less than three minutes to empty the water tank of the fire tender and once again the vehicle has to rush for refilling. This delay in refilling water, after regular interval of time, during fire accident may kill many innocent people.

With boom in business and rapid development in the Diglipur area, the Diglipur market region has seen an unprecedented grown in trade, resulting in expansion of market and mushrooming of new shopping hubs.

Sadly this development is more or less unplanned. In case of a major fire accident it won’t be easy for the Fire Service unit to tackle the fire, promptly.

In entire Diglipur Bazaar there is no Fire Hose, therefore in case of any emergency, helpless people in Diglipur Bazaar will have no other option than waiting for Fire Tenders.

Moreover the Diglipur Bazaar area also does not have Fire Hydrant system, from where Fire tenders could be refilled in case of fire accidents. It seems that even today the Fire Services department is completely unprepared in Diglipur area and the arrangements are totally inadequate.

When contacted, the Chief Fire Officer of A & N Fire Services, Mr. Anyesh Roy, told Andaman Sheekha that the Fire Services had a wooden building opposite PS Diglipur, which is no more in use.

“Now for time being we have shifted to PS Diglipur’s new building as there is lot of space in the said building for barracks and office works,” the CFO said.

Regarding ordering new fire tenders for Diglipur area the CFO said “For every fire tender we require 13 staffs in two shifts and we don’t have that much man power at present. At Kalighat we are opening a new Fire Station soon, which is very close to Diglipur Area. We have already placed orders for Fire Tenders for the Kalighat Fire Station. At Kalighat the work for construction of quarters for Fire Brigade staffs have already started,” he said.

Islanders can only hope that all these planning will become reality soon, infact much before another major Fire accident. (With inputs from Diglipur Correspondent and our Reporter Port Blair, Sarthak Kanjilal) 

Staff Correspondent

Diglipur, Feb 28: In a shocking incident, a 25 years old policeman killed his 19 year old wife over matrimonial dispute yesterday at around 4.00 PM, at Naveen Nagar, Diglipur.

According to reports available here, Mr. Ratan Das, working in Police Marine Force tied hands of his wife, Shilp Bepari, with bed and murdered her by mercilessly beating her with a stick.

“They were newly married, infact nearly a year back both were married,” Mr. SBS Tyagi the Superintendent of Police told Andaman Sheekha today.

According to reports for initial six months both husband and wife were living in Port Blair and after that they moved to Diglipur on Transfer. Since last six months they were having regular dispute in family, sources said.

“In two occasions the matter was reported to police but later the case was settled amicably. This is still not clear whether the mother and sister of Ratan Das were present in the house while Ratan was beating his wife,” a senior officer of Diglipur region told Andaman Sheekha over phone.

According to reports available here a case has been registered in this regard under section 302/498. Ratan Das has already been arrested by Police and produced to court today, from where he was sent to Judicial Custody.

N & M Correspondent
Betapur, Feb 27: The Betapur Sub-Post Office has become a constant source of discomfort and harassment for the residents of the area. People living in Betapur region complain that due to whimsical attitude of the Post Master of Betapur Sub-Post Office, people of the region are facing a lot of inconvenience.

When Andaman Sheekha Correspondent visited the Betapur Sub-Post Office after receiving complaints, the correspondent found that the Sub- Post office which should have been opened atleast by 9.00 am was closed till 9.30 am. The staffs of the Sub-Post Office were sitting outside the office and when asked about this delay, one of the employee replied “The Kind (Post Master) is yet to come so we are waiting outside.”

However on that day the Post Master, Mr. Rajendra did not arrive till 10.30 am but anyhow a peon got a key from somewhere and opened the Sub-Post Office at 9.30 am.

“This is a regular affair in this sub-post office. I am coming here since last three days to get a stamp for my forms but as the Post Master is not there, again I have to come tomorrow,” a frustrated school student told Andaman Sheekha.

Not only this, there are also reports that the Post Master misbehaves with general public and often use abusive language. Villagers allege that as the Post Master remain missing from the office, all the services of the sub-post office remain affected, causing problems for villages.

When Andaman Sheekha Correspondent met the Pradhan of Sivapuram(Betapur) regarding this problem the Pradhan said that even he is getting dozens of complaints every month, about the said Post Master.

“I had tried many times to talk to the Post Master of Betapur Sub-Post Office to settle these problems but I failed. He usually comes at 10.30 am and he leaves by 12.30 noon. I urge media to take up this issue and publish this report in newspaper so that Director of Postal Service could understand the actual problem of this area,” Mr. Arshad Wasim, the Pradhan of Sivapuram (Betapur) told Andaman Sheekha.

Sheekha Bureau
Baratang Island, Feb 27: A ‘Sharamdan’ programme organised by the villagers of Baratang Island generated much heat on Sunday morning.

According to reports available here a group of villagers living in Baratang Island, headed by Pradhan of Sundergarh, Mr. Biju Gurudasan had decided to organise a Sharamdan programme on a road stretch near ‘Baratang Mud Volcano’ site. The road, which actually belongs to Zilla Parishad of Middle and North Andaman, was in very bad shape since last several years.

As the road was giving hiccups to all visiting tourists and also daily users the lady Pradhan of that village along with Pradhan of Sundergarh, Baratang and villagers had planned to organise the ‘Sharamdan’.

But problem started when the Zilla Parishad Member of the area protested the move saying that the road belongs to Zilla Parishad and villagers are trying to damage the road.

When the ‘Sharamdan’ started the Zilla Parishad Member of the area, Mr. Kurma Rao, reportedly reached the spot and sat at the middle of the road in protest. Soon police vehicles arrived to tackle the situation. But as nobody paid any heed to the ZP members and villagers continued to fill all the potholes with stones and loose earth, the ZP members had to leave the place.

The Member of Parliament, Mr. Bishnu Pada Ray, who was present at Baratang yesterday, also participated actively in the ‘Sharamdan’. According to report nearly 40 villagers took part in the ‘Sharamdan’ and nearly 200 mtr stretch of road has been made fit for use temporarily.