Vikramaditya & DJ Venkatesh
Port Blair, June 7: Regardless of startling revelations by Andaman Sheekha on the Bar accident at Diglipur, the Police has maintained its stand that the mishap was in fact a case of road accident without even inspecting the CCTV footages.
This daily has evidence that the victim, Debolal Das was along with the Pradhan of Keralapuram at BRB Bar when he accidentally fell from the first floor of the building sustaining injuries that left him paralysed.
The victim is currently at MIOT Hospital at Chennai for undergoing a surgery for a dislocated neck and nasal congestion. However, doctors of MIOT have already confirmed that the paralysis could not be cured and the victim will have to spend the rest of his life on wheel-chair.
“It’s strange that the Police assert that the victim sustained the injuries in a road accident claiming it to be the statement of the victim. But it’s now widely known that the victim accidentally fell from the first floor of BRB Bar, which doesn’t even have permission to run the liquor trade on the first floor. Even the CCTV footages have not been inspected by the cops. It clearly appears to be a case of cover-up to shield the actual culprits behind the accident. The victim on the other hand is battling at Chennai. He doesn’t even have enough money for the treatment. The Police must come out clean and reveal actual facts behind the mishap,” said some residents of Diglipur.
However, police maintains that they have to follow what the victim has said in police statement but it is not clear yet that why CCTV footage of the BAR has not been checked yet. Is there any effort to save anyone, in this case? public questions.

Vikramaditya
Port Blair, June 06: One spell of heavy rain today challenged the smartness of all the planners, designers and bosses of Port Blair smart city.
Today’s heavy rain has proved that nothing has changed in these Islands significantly and the tall claims of transforming it into a smart city are simply over-smartness.
Land sliding, flooding, overflowing of drains, road blockage and everything else that used to happened to this city twenty years back, repeated today and the smart Municipal Council was seen totally unprepared to tackle the situation.
This is irony of these Islands that even after several decades the town planners and top architects of Andaman and Nicobar Islands have failed to make the city drains wider and tackle the flood like situations in Port Blair city.
People of smart city Port Blair as usual moved on after today’s poor show without any complaint. They walked through the overflowing dirty drain water, drove vehicles from the flooded roads, knowing well that nothing will probably change in Port Blair in next 20 years. Very smart indeed.

Port Blair, June 05: Visitors seeking the Newseum’s customary offering of front pages from newspapers across the United States this morning are being greeted by a wall of blacked-out images.
The museum has redacted its catalog of front pages for the day in order to honor journalists killed reporting the news and to raise awareness of threats to press freedom worldwide. In total, the Newseum is memorializing 14 journalists who died on the job in 2014, including James Foley, Michel du Cille, Anja Niedringhaus, Simone Camilli, Luke Somers and Steven Sotloff.
The redaction is accompanied by a social media campaign, #WithoutNews, that invites Newseum visitors to consider life without the press. Since the campaign went live this morning, several journalists have offered interpretations of what that world might look like.
Meanwhile Andaman Sheekha will be publishing #WithoutNews banner prepared by Newseum on the front page to join the initiative of Newseum as a tribute to journalists killed reporting the news.

Sarthak Kanjilal
Port Blair, June 03: The Humphrygunj Police has rounded up nearly 20 people in the UP Tikry attempt to Murder case.
Talking to Andaman Sheekha, the SDPO Bambooflat, Mr MA Nausad said that the police is trying its level best to solve the case by tomorrow or they after tomorrow. He also said that nearly 20-25 persons have been rounded up for questioning.
20 years old lady of UP Tikry, Sippighat Miss Kamna Tiwari was attacked by an unknown person with an iron rod on 30/05/2016, which had triggered a massive resentment among the villagers of Sippighat.
However, it is learnt that among these 20- 25 people, a 25 year old boy was picked up by the Humphrygunj Police following a complaint from another women of UP Tikry, when he was trying to chase her upto Bhathubasthi.

Sarthak Kanjilal
Port Blair, June 2: It’s hard enough to survive being stranded after a boat capsizes all alone at sea.
But here’s story of a fisherman who survived in choppy waters swimming for almost a day, searching for water and food in the dense forests, seeking help from the primitive tribes to ultimately return to civilisation after nearly five days.
An incredible survival story parallel to the famous Discovery Channel’s ‘Bear Grills: Man Vs Wild’ series.
R Mahendran left the coast from Machi Jetty, Guptapara towards Collinpur for fishing with a friend (a professional fisherman) on the 20th of last month at about 4 pm. While reaching towards Collinpur, turbulent weather conditions forced them to anchor the boat in the sea. But minutes after anchorage, their boat capsized after a huge wave overwhelmed them.
Both of them started swimming towards the shore and Mahendran managed to get hold of an Ice Box to keep himself afloat. His friend caught hold of a safety buoy but was struggling to swim due to his clothes (tight jeans). He disappeared suddenly during high waves despite frantic calls from Mahendran to grab the Ice Box.
Mahendran floated for almost four hours to reach the sea shore of Collinpur – far away from civilisation. Waking up the next day on May 21, he started a frenzied search for food and water in the dense forests, but failed.
He ultimately had to quench his thirst from rainwater accumulated in tree leaves of the jungle. He desperately tried to push his way out from the dense forests but failed and returned to the same location and slept overnight. He remembers that he cried that night like a baby for hours and hours.
Deeply dejected, Mahendran recollected courage the next day and started finding his way out from the forest. About walking for kilometres, he reached a water stream (Nallah) and started walking along the nallah and reached a sea shore where he saw a Jarawa tribe who asked him whether he was the person who survived the sea ordeal.
“I was so afraid seeing the Jarawa man that I raised my hands out of fear but he behaved politely and spoke to me in Hindi,” Mahendran said.
The Jarawa boy then took Mahendran to their place and provided him with clothes and food. He camped with the Jarawa tribes numbering around 10-15 including women and children for about 3-4 days in the forests. The generous members of the primitive tribe provided him rice, oil turmeric, salt etc to cook at their hutment.
Mahendran was later dropped at Kalikona beach by the Jarawa tribes. “I thanked them from bottom of my heart and told them that I am alive only for them. I also told them that I will remember this, my entire life. They bid me good bye and told me to inform police that they have saved my life, if police questions,” Mahendran recalled.

Vikramaditya

Port Blair, June 01: The decision of the Municipal Council to impose hike in Octroi taxes for import of commodities two wheelers, three wheelers, four wheelers is facing opposition from the traders’ community of these islands.

Accusing the civic body of imposing an unjustified hike on Octroi on import of luxury goods like 4.5 % for 2 wheelers, 5-6 percent for three-wheelers and more than 6-9 percent for four wheelers, the business community here maintain that Octroi tax is paid when a particular product enters a State.

“The unjustified hike in Octroi tax will have an adverse affect on the consumers of these islands who are already reeling under rising prices of commodities,” said a local businessman.

“When some traders approached the Octroi Naka for getting their imports from Chennai and Kolkata released they were informed about the revision of Octroi rates. The Municipal Council never bothered to issue grace period for the local traders as also informing them about the hike in tax rates. Moreover, the proposal of the Council has even not been notified in the official gazette and the hike has been imposed in haste,” the businessman said.

Other businessman said that vehicles that have been pre-booked will now cost an additional Rs 30000-50000 and will seriously impact the traders who are under liabilities to several financial institutions.

“The hike in Octroi tax needs to be reconsidered considering the limited potential of these islands as it will only benefit the Municipal treasury,” he said requesting the intervention of the Lt. Governor for an exemption of two months from hike in octroi tax to enable local dealers plan their business.

The Secretary of Port Blair Municipal Council could not be contacted today for a comment.

DJ Venkatesh & Sarthak Kanjilal

Port Blair, May 31: Even as India Post is considered one of the most old and reliable institutions of the country, inordinate delay in dispatch of parcels and mail to Diglipur is drawing criticism for the Head Post Office here.

According to sources, a huge backlog of postal articles and parcels bound for Diglipur from both mainland and inland have been left unattended for the past several months at the Head Post Office owing to shortage of boat services even as the Post Office has taken no initiative to dispatch the articles using road transport means.

According to reports, the Head Post Office dispatches postal articles to Diglipur by boats which sails on Wednesdays and Saturdays. But as the boat services to Diglipur have been disrupted for the past three months, a huge backlog of Diglipur-bound postal articles including Speed Post items and parcels have been created at the Head Post.

The last boat to Diglipur with postal articles sailed on May 14 and since then the Postal Department has taken no steps to dispatch postal articles to Diglipur by either STS or private buses.

“As per rules, the India Post parcels and Speed Post should be delivered in five days. But hundreds of such articles are lying undelivered at the Head Post Office here. Most of the parcels contain items like medicines, machine parts, vehicle parts and urgent documents for school and college students. But due to the apathy of the Postal Department, the posts have not been dispatched to Diglipur for the past several months. During monsoon season, ship services to outer stations are often disrupted and the Postal Department should have made prior arrangement to dispatch the articles via road. As a result of the apathy, hundreds of residents of Diglipur are suffering. In some cases, people even approached the Head Post Office to collect the parcels by hand and produced valid identity cards. But the officials of the Head Post Office declined to handover the parcels claiming that it will be delivered only at Diglipur. Furious residents have now decided to launch a proper forum to register their complaints over poor postal services,” said some residents of Diglipur.

When contacted Mr. Stephen Fernandez, Head Post Master said that the delay is not intentional. He said that as there is no vessel for Diglipur the postal services have suffered a setback but efforts are being made to send all parcels via STS buses, whenever it is possible. “We feel sending parcels via vessel is very safe that is why we prefer vessels,” he added.

Sarthak Kanjilal
Port Blair, May 30: Deadly attack on a 20 year old girl of UP Tikry, Sippighat this evening triggered a massive resentment among the villagers of Sippighat this evening. According to reports the girl namely Miss Kamna Tiwari, a resident of UP Tikry, Sippighat has been attacked by an unknown person with an iron rod at around 07:00pm, this evening.
As per the sources, the girl was coming towards her home when the assailant, coming from the opposite direction stared at the girl and attacked the girl, using an iron rod, on her head.
Sources further said that the girl however managed to run towards her home from where she was rushed to the Garacharma Hospital.
Andaman Sheekha has also learnt that the Superintendent of Police, South Andaman and SDPO, Bambooflat have visited the hospital and also visited the spot where this incident took place.
A month back a women was murdered in the same village and till date the case is under investigation, although one arrest has been made.
According to reliable sources, the villagers are now planning to block the road of their village demanding immediate arrest of the attacker and their safety.
It is also learnt that the police has registered a case under section 307 IPC i.e attempt to murder, in this regard.
However, it is still not clear whether the incidents of recent murder at Sippighat and attack on this girl are inter-connected.

Amit Halder
Port Blair, May 29: Though services have improved in the lone referral hospital of these islands in the recent months, allegations of mistreatment of senior citizens may draw flak for the management of GB Pant Hospital.
According to reports, several senior citizens have reported maltreatment by the security guards at the medicine counters, but no action has been initiated against the culprits.
As per information, some security guard jump into the queue of senior citizens to obtain medicines for their near and dear ones. Instances have also been reported when the security guards verbally abused the senior citizens at the medicine counters.
“The misdeeds of the security guards can be revealed from the CCTV footages in the OPD Counter. Generally the queue for the senior citizens is small and to take advantage of the situation, the security guards break into their lines to obtain medicines. When some senior citizens objected to their acts, they were mistreated by the security guards. Some even hurled abuses at the senior citizens. Even the staff manning the medicine counters don’t say anything to the security guards and provide them the medicines from the queue meant for senior citizens,” said an eyewitness speaking to Andaman Sheekha.
Andaman Sheekha team also has photographs showing how one Security Guard is jumping the queue forcefully, while senior citizens are opposing
When contacted, the Medical Superintendent of GB Pant Hospital, Dr MK Saha refuted any harassment to the senior citizens at the hospital. No additional security guards are present at the OPD counter meddle with the senior citizens. Special instructions have been given to all appointed security guards to treat the elderly on priority and provide them all possible assistance. In fact, some senior citizens get furious when they are asked to produce their senior citizen cards at the Counters, he said adding that jumping queues is not a good practice particularly in hospitals.

Port Blair, May 27: BJP’s National President, Mr. Amit Shah is scheduled to arrive Port Blair tomorrow. According to details available here after arriving at Port Blair Mr. Amit Shah will unveil the Veer Savarkar Jyot at National Memorial Cellular Jail at 4 PM in presence of Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister of State, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, GoI, the Lt. Governor of India, Lt. Gen (Retd.) AK Singh and the Member of Parliament, Mr. Bishnu Pada Ray.
Later in the evening Mr. Amit Shah will addressed a public meeting at Junglighat Ground of Port Blair at around 5. 00 PM. Mr. Amit Shah is also scheduled to meet Party leaders and workers late in the evening at Party Office.