Port Blair, Sep 12: The Lt Governor, Prof Jagdish Mukhi, accompanied by the Chief Secretary, Shri Anindo Majumdar, Member of Parliament, Shri B P Ray and senior officers of the Administration today visited Baratang in the North & Middle Andaman District and interacted with the PRI members. The Adhyaksha, Zilla Parishad N&M Andaman, Smt Prabhabati Biswas and PRI members were present and apprised the Lt Governor on various issues and problems of their area. The Lt Governor patiently heard their issues and problems and directed the concerned departments to resolve the issues expeditiously. Individual PRI members also raised their issues on which the Lt Governor assured them to resolve their issues on the basis of merit.

He also visited the Oralkatcha Senior Secondary School, Baratang and was happy to note that there is no shortage of books and teachers in the school. Issue pertaining to development of school playground was raised by the PRI members. Directions were given to the Chief Secretary to resolve the issue on immediate basis. The Lt Governor also visited the PHC, Baratang and inspected the heath care facilities. He directed the health authorities to improve the toilet facilities urgently.

On his way to Baratang, the Lt Governor also halted at Chouldhary, Tushnabad and Ferrargunj and interacted with the PRI members there. The PRI members apprised him about issues concerning their areas. The Lt Governor directed the concerned departments to resolve the issues expeditiously.

Port Blair, Sept 9: The Lt. Governor, A&N Islands, Prof. Jagdish Mukhi today launched the Andaman & Nicobar Police Mobile Apps and District Police Website at a function held at the Police Head Quarters at Atlanta Point here this morning. The Lt. Governor was accorded an impressive Guard of Honour on arrival at the Police Head Quarters.

Addressing the gathering of all ranks of A&N Police and media persons soon after the launch, the Lt. Governor expressed his happiness over the launch of Police Apps & District Police Website and said it will increase the connectivity & communication between the public and police besides bringing transparency in policing.

The person living in the remote area gauge the work of the Administration by the performance of the police, said the Lt. Governor asking the Police to be people friendly and perform their duty with utmost sincerity & devotion, to match the expectations of the general public.

The Lt. Governor mentioned that the general public can use the application launched today to ingress any of the Police portal services apart from District and Police Stations specific information. The Lt. Governor said that A & N Police is an integral part of the Administration and that the Police must adapt to the issues of our societies and to handle the issues concerning ordinary citizens, in the best possible manner. He also emphasized the importance of beat system of policing for strengthening the Administration and police at the ground level.

The Lt Governor also felicitated the Officers of NIC and others who assisted the A&N Police in developing the apps and websites and gave away prizes to the winners of the short film contest on social issues conducted by the A&N Police recently. He also released the A&N Police Quarterly News Letter and a CD containing video clipping on social issues. A video on social issues was also screened for the gathering on the occasion.

Earlier, welcoming the Lt Governor and others in the function, the Director General of Police, Shri Rajesh Malik said, technological intervention can go a long way in improving the quality of service and can help us win the trust and respect of the community, which is an essential pre-requisite of any successful police force. The A&N Police is fully committed to serve in a transparent and honest manner, the DGP added.

The A&N Police has taken a number of significant steps to provide a clean, transparent and responsive police and also to decrease the human interface so as to reduce complaints of harassment and corruption. The Apps and website launched today will enhance the technological intervention in providing better service delivery to the citizens of A&N Islands, he said. The DGP also presented a memento to the Lt Governor on the occasion.

The function concluded with the vote of thanks proposed by the Inspector General of Police, Shri N S Bundela. The Apps is available on Google Play store. The website contains all necessary information viz list of OPs, JPPs, LOPs, do’s and don’ts for tourists. The links to the A&N Police App is http://spsa.and.nic.in/Files/A&N Police.apk while the website for South Andaman District Police will be http://spsa.and.nic.in, for N&M Andaman it will be http://spnma.and.nic.in and for Nicobar District Police it will be http://spcn.and.nic.in.

Y Naveen Kumar & K Giresh

Port Blair, Sept 06: Very heavy & incessant rain since early this morning disrupted normal life in South Andaman region, causing flood like situation in many places.

Heavy rainfall together with high tide in sea caused flood like situation in almost all the low lying areas of Port Blair city, including the runway of Veer Savarkar International Airport at Port Blair.

Because of heavy rain aircrafts of SpiceJet from Chennai and Kolkata today could not land at Port Blair airport and hence had to return back to respective destinations.

Areas like Mohanpura, Girls’ School area, Jawaharlal Nehru Rajakiya Mahavidyalaya, RK Mission campus, Austinabad, School line etc witnessed flood like situation and hence all roads in this route were closed for several hours.

Dollygunj’s Lok Nath Colony, which came up in a low lying area also witness flood like situation forcing people to stay indoors for several hours.

Many suffered engine breakdown in their vehicles because of flood like situation on road however there is no report of any injuries.

Amit Halder, Rajesh & Sarthak Kanjilal
Port Blair, September 04: In yet another crocodile attack this afternoon a 63 year old lady of Ranchi Basthi, Caddle Gunj, Mrs Jaisilta Tirkey was attacked and killed by a crocodile.
As per reports the incident took place at 11.30 am close to the victim’s home. This second such attack in a month, last month a man namely Mr Mukunda Roy S/o Ananto Roy resident of Chouldari was killed by a crocodile.
Sources said that the Crocodile attacked her and took her body to another place. The matter was then reported to the Police and Forest Staffs after which a search operation was conducted by them and the villagers, after searching for more than two hours the body was recovered by the villagers at around 02:30 pm.
As per information, fuming villagers also killed the Crocodile.
According to reports, the villagers with the bodies of both woman and Crocodile then came to the Tushnabad Junction and blocked the road agitating against the Crocodile menace at the area.
The villagers demanded Rs. 25 lakhs as compensation, One Government job for a family member of the victim and shoot at sight of crocodiles in revenue area, because forest department is unable to control the population of crocodiles.
The protest was later called off this evening at around 06:45pm after the DC, South Andaman and Forest Department assured to give compensation to the family of the woman and a DRM job to one of the family members of the victim.
As per detail Forest Department will issue compensation of Rs. 3 Lakhs to the family members of the victim while the District Administration assured compensation of Rs. 1.5 lakhs.
The Forest Department also assured to provide boats for four villages viz Mithakhari, Chouldari, Tushnabad and collinpur. Two youths from each village will be engaged in this boat which will also have a Forest and Police Jawan. The team will be provided with nets and team will be tasked to drive away crocs from these villages.
It is also learnt that the Male Crocodile, which attacked the lady, was 4.5 to 5m long and weighted around 600 kg.
Another Crocodile attack was also reported at the same village this evening. It is learnt that another Crocodile attacked a Cow at Caddle Gunj.

Amit Haldar

Port Blair, Aug 31: Three salt water crocodiles inside the residential area of Port Mout village of South Andaman today triggered panic among residence.

According to details this morning a family living in Port Mout village found altogether three crocodiles in their field very close to their house.

While two crocodiles reportedly escaped from the place seeing people, one crocodile was caught by the family members, so that evidence of increasing crocodile threat could be shown to Andaman’s forest department.

Port Mout area is situated next to Loha Barraik Crocodile Sanctuary, where last month one youth was killed by a giant salt water crocodile while fishing.

Residents of the area have been demanding shifting of the Crocodile Sanctuary to any other place far from these villages or aleast an assurance from Andaman’s Forest Department about their safety.

“If Forest Department is willing to maintain Crocodile Sanctuary in our area then atleast the department must do proper fencing so that Crocodiles do not enter residential area,” Mr. Mohan Halder the Pradhan of Chouldari Village told Andaman Sheekha today.

Residents of the area now fear that any day these Crocodile can even enter inside their houses too.

“I doubt other two crocodiles have entered our pond. The forest department must ensure our safety,” said owner of the house Mr. Mohanjeet Singh.

In last five years about one dozen people, including a tourist from USA, have been killed by salt water crocodiles of A & N Islands.

Crocs have also been sighted repeatedly in famous tourist beaches of Corbyn’s Cove and North Bay.

Recently the Forest Department carried out a census of crocodiles of Andaman and Nicobar Islands but the result of the census has not been made public yet.