Senthil Kumar
Rangat, Apr 22: The Gram Sabha of Rangat was scheduled today but the meeting could not yield any output because of various reasons. Firstly the Rangat Panchayat had fixed that the Gram Sabha meeting will begin at 3.00 pm but it could begin only at 5.00 pm leaving many upset and forcing some to withdraw themselves.
Secondly, it is learnt that officials, from some crucial departments like APWD, health etc remained absent during the meeting, which again left people attending the meeting deeply disappointed.
Thirdly as the photographs taken by Andaman Sheekha proves that the number of people attending the meeting was unbelievably less but instead of cancelling the meeting the Pradhan of Rangat Panchayat preferred to continue the meeting. Later signatures in attendance book was reportedly taken from public were present in Bazaar, for formality sake. With this one can imagine how fruitful the Gram Sabha meeting might have been.

Senthil Kumar & Amit Halder
Port Blair, Apr 21: The Rangat area suddenly became the center of high political drama this evening after the Up-Adhyaksh of North and Middle Andaman, Zilla Parishad, was picked up by a police team of Rangat Police Station for medical examination.
According to report the Up-Adhyaksh of North and Middle Andaman, Zilla Parishad, Mr. A Tirupati Rao, who is a Zilla Parishad Member from Nimbutala area was attending the Gram Sabha meeting of Nimbutala Panchayat today.
As there were hardly 200 (which should have been atleast 275) villagers in the Gram Sabha meeting the Pradhan and Up-Pradhan of Nimbutala Panchayat were planning to cancel today’s Gram Sabha meeting but on some issues arguments started the Up-Pradhan of Nimbutala Panchayat and the Up-Adhyaksh of North and Middle Andaman, Zilla Parishad.
Sources told Andaman Sheekha that soon argument took the shape of a scuffle. It is learnt that the Pradhan and Up-Pradhan of Nimbutala alleged that Mr. A Tirupati Rao is under influence of liquor following which a police team present at the Gram Sabha took Mr. Rao to Hospital for Medical Examination.
This triggered a political ripple in Rangat area, soon the Adhyaksha of N & M Andaman Zilla Parisahd, Mrs. Prabhawati Biswas also reached Rangat and reached Dy.SP Office with other senior BJP leader to enquire that how a Sub Inspector ranked office can pick up a Up-Adhyaksh of Zilla Parishad. There were several dozen people outside Rangat Police Station from both Congress and BJP parties in the evening. Later the matter ended following some kind of compromise between two groups, it is learnt.

Sarthak Kanjilal
Port Blair, April 20: Repeated protests and demonstrations by the Daily Rated Workers of the Andaman Public Works Department notwithstanding, the government agency continues to miss deadlines for implementation of the 1/30th of pay plus DA to the daily rated workers as per the guidelines of the Central Government. The daily rated workers of APWD staged a massive agitation last year in November demanding grant of 1/30th of pay plus DA and other service benefits as the norms. The APWD assured to look into the demand on priority. But after a lapse of over 4-5 months, the APWD failed to implement the rule to benefit the daily rated workers.
The DRMs of APWD took to the streets again, this time supported by the Confederation of Indian Trade Unions. The grievance of the DRMs was placed before the National Lok Adalat recently, which directed the APWD to implement the grant of 1/30th of pay plus DA to the daily rated workers of APWD as per the government guidelines and expedite payment of bonus to the eligible DRMs within three months.
But sources claim that despite the Court diktat the APWD has initiated no steps to grant the service benefits to the eligible DRMs. Owing to the apathy of APWD, the CITU has now threatened to hold widespread demonstrations if the government agency fails to comply with the Court orders within the stipulated period.
Speaking to Andaman Sheekha, CITU General Secretary, Mr B Chandrachoodan termed the unwarranted delay as open violation of government rules. Despite assurance and court orders, the APWD has taken no steps till date to implement the 1/30th pay plus DA for the DRMs of the agency. If APWD fails to meet the deadline set by Court, we’ll be forced to hold widespread agitations to press for the demand, he said.

Staff Correspondent
Port Blair, April 19: Two distinguished identities of the natives of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are above all other Identities, said the Lt. Governor of these islands, Lt. General AK Singh (Retd) on Monday.
“Firstly, people of the Islands are proud Indians and secondly they all belong to the A&N Islands. The past of the Islands is a saga of sacrifice, selflessness and contribution to the National cause and we have to move forward using this rich past as our base and great heritage,” he said during a function at Raj Niwas.
Referring to the recent Maha Sammelans organized by two local communities, he said that he has recently read about these conferences in local newspapers. He said that people should maintain their culture for the future generation. “You should be very proud of your heritage but not at the expense of Andamans,” he said. People present during the programme much-admired this brilliant statement made by the Lt. Governor with huge round of applause.

DJ Venkatesh
Port Blair, April 18: Considered the lifeline of this geographically distributed island territory, the Shipping Services continues to remain in complete disarray causing all sorts of discomfort to commuters. Having failed to make discernible progress in the recent years particularly increasing the operational capacity of the DSS fleet, the Directorate of Shipping Services that provides connectivity to 29 of the 36 inhabited islands, has considerably reduced the number of sailings to various islanders drawing severe criticism from remote islanders.
According to reports, the Shipping Department has 17 Speed Boats of which only five are operational currently. MV Bambooka, MV Kamorta, MV North Passage, MV Jolly buoy and MV Rani Changa transport passengers and materials from Port Blair to Diglipur, Mayabunder, Havelock, Neil, Long Island, Hut Bay, Rangat etc. MV Chowra and MV Campbell Bay operate in the Port Blair-Hut Bay and other sectors in the southern group.
MV Campbell Bay was recently pressed to mainland services via Nancowry and Campbell Bay. Another vessel, MV Teal damaged during tsunami was dry docked recently and a minor sang in the vessel leads to cancellation of the sailings in the last minute putting passengers in the lurch.
Poor functioning of the Dry Dock facilities here has also added to the woes of the ship commuters. MV Onge and MV Long Island have been in Dry Dock for more than one year. The cold storages of M V Campbell Bay went defunct recently after which the Deep Freezers of MV Onge and MV Ramanujam were removed and installed in MV Campbell Bay.
“With the advent to technology, shipping services were supposed to improve in these islands. On the contrary, the services have deteriorated in the recent years. During 2005, there were four ship trips in a week to Diglipur. Over the years, the trips have been reduced to three, then two and currently only one vessel sails to Diglipur in a week.
Frequent technical snags in the DSS vessels are the major reason for the poor services offered to commuters. It’s an irony that another island territory, Lakshadweep went surplus with an induction of a vessel MV Coral and the Directorate of Shipping Services here jumped to seize the opportunity to commission a 40 year old vessel of Lakshwadweep MV Bharat Seema in its fleet. This shows how the Lakshwadweep administration professionally manages its shipping fleet. The local administration should send a team from the Shipping Department to Lakshadweep to study their system instead of sending Municipal Councillors to Spain.”
“The Lt Governor during the 2nd meeting of National Sagarmala Apex Committee at New Delhi requested the committee for a special perspective plan to be developed for identifying and evaluating the port infrastructural projects and thanked the Shipping Ministry for finalizing the acquisition of badly needed ships for the islands. But newer acquisitions will be of no use if the fleet is not managed properly. As the Shipping Department it will take three to four years for arrival of new ships. It will spell disaster for the lifeline of these islands if the existing system collapses before the new acquisition of vessel,” said some local residents.

Staff Correspondent
Campbell Bay, April 17: Shortage of fuel has triggered a big power crisis at Campbell Bay in the Nicobar group of islands. According to reports, the Electricity Department has imposed nine hours of power-cuts in the area since Friday after HSD stock with the agency exhausted. Negligence of the officials handling the task of HSD transport is said to be the main reason behind the power crisis.
According to reports, the Electricity Department of Campbell Bay is exercising power-cuts from 4 am to 9 am and from 1 pm to 5 pm since Saturday. The sudden infliction of power outages has left locals enraged who are now alleging discrimination by the officials of the Electricity Department.
“Campbell Bay in the southern group of islands has always been neglected by various departments of the administration. Supply of HSD to the Electricity Department to provide 24 hour power supply to the residents here remain routinely disrupted albeit the fact the electricity generation in these islands is solely dependent on HSD. Officials were well aware of the depleting stock of HSD here, but made no efforts to replenish the stock to prevent hardships to the consumers. Realising that HSD stock is depleting, the Electricity Office here imposed heavy power-cuts since Friday causing all sorts of problems to the people. Strict action should be taken against officials responsible for the lapse and the adequate fuel stock should be dispatched immediately so that normal power supply in restored here,” said a resident of Campbell Bay.
HSD fuel is the major source of power generation in these islands and almost every Islands in the archipelago is provided electricity by Diesel Generators. Though it’s the primary responsibility of the Electricity Department to maintain adequate stock of fuel at every division, the Department faces accusations of negligence in maintaining fuel stock at regular intervals.
Meanwhile, sources said that the Campbell Bay unit always have HSD old of 15 days as buffer stock and according to latest report the HSD oil has now been dispatched for Campbell Bay and it will reach Campbell Bay within three days. “If there is buffer stock and new stock will reach Campbell Bay soon, there is no point of such power cuts,” alleged a resident of Campbell Bay.

Naveen Kumar
Port Blair, Apr 15: Once again a crocodile was sighted near North Bay Island on Thursday forcing the authorities to close down the beach for all kind of waters sports, including diving.
It has been learnt that on Thursday and Friday no tourist boats were allowed to leave for North Bay Islands, leaving tourists very upset and fuming.
This is not the first time when crocodile has been sighted in the coastal waters of North Bay Island.
However another sighting of crocodile will simply mean that many visiting tourists will not be able to visit North Bay during their present trip.
Tour Operators are worst hit as they have to make all the guests understand about this problem and convince them to drop the plan to visit in North Bay.
Talking to Andaman Sheekha the Vice President of Bay of Bengal Tour Operators Association, Mr Anand said that they have requested the administration to shift all the crocodiles to an area, which is away from tourist spots or to put crocodile fencing around tourists spots to avoid human crocodile conflicts but nothing has been done so far, as a result every other month they have to close North Bay for which Tour Operators suffer huge inconvenience.

Staff Correspondent
Port Blair, April 11: At a time when the PBMC delegation heading abroad for a workshop in Spain may be packing bags, all plans of one elected Councillor in the group has landed in rough weathers over allegation of violation of Indian Passport rules. In a complaint to the Chief Secretary, Police and Anti-Corruption Unit, N Srinivasan, a resident of Shadipur claimed that the Councillor of Ward no. 15, CH Babu violated the Passport rules by not furnishing details of pending criminal cases against him in the Court of Law.
In the complaint, Srinivasan said that CH Babu along with some other Councillors and two officials have been deputed on a Smart City Executive Training scheduled to be held at Bilbao, Spain from April 18-22, 2016. An approximate expenditure of 4.80 lakh per person will be incurred for the tour. But the Councillor, who has pending criminal cases against him, obtained an Indian Passport under Tatkal scheme without furnishing the details of the criminal cases as also the requisite undertaking to the Passport Office, he alleged.
“As per the existing rules, an Indian Citizen having pending criminal cases in Court need to furnish an undertaking to the Passport Office while applying for Passport to travel abroad. Even the permission from the Court is necessary for the applicant to travel abroad on Indian Passport. A criminal case under section 450/395/189/34 IPC was registered against CH Babu at PS Aberdeen under FIR No. 138/12 dated 14-04-2012. The chargesheeted was submitted to the Court vide nos. 275/12 on 25/12/2012. The trial of the case is currently underway in the Court here,” claimed the complainant demanding an investigation to ascertain the facts in the matter and prevent the Councillor with pending criminal cases from flying abroad.
However, talking to Andaman Sheekha C H Babu, Councillor of Ward no. 15 clarified that all cases are minor in nature and there is no serious criminal case against him. “The allegations are totally false. As a politician we have many opponents who might have done something against me. If they want me to go I shall go or else I drop the plan, what’s the big deal,” he added.

Staff Correspondent
Port Blair, April 11: Even as the visionary Lt. Governor of these islands plans to open more islands for tourism to bolster the industry, neglect of some potential beaches in South Andaman is earning flak for the administration particularly the Tourism Department. The sun-kissed Bada Balu beach in South Andaman is a classic instance of administrative apathy as it continues to suffer from acute dearth of basic amenities.
According to reports, the Bada Balu beach has the potential to attract tourists like any other beaches of these islands. However, visitors deter from venturing near the beach due to poor connectivity and lack of basic facilities.
The long and white beach is situated close to Chidiyatapu, much behind the helipad. One has to take a rocky and bumpy ride from the point where the road ends. During rain it becomes impossible to take vehicles in Bada Balu road.
The road leading to the beach is in such poor state that even if one reaches the beach using the road, it becomes practically impossible to return due to the tattered and bumpy surface.
Garbage scattered along the beach has emerged as another concern for visitors as the beach lacks garbage bins at various places. Owing to the dismal condition, the beach now wears a deserted look and has been reduced to a den of anti-social elements and love birds.
“On one hand the administration plans to develop the tourism industry with opening of new islands while on the other it continues to neglect existing destinations having potential make it big in the industry,” Mr. Mohd Rafique a social worker.
Bada Balu is one such case. Lack of basic facilities like road, sanitation has decreased the popularity of the beach to a great extent.
“One can easily spot empty liquor bottles, plastic bottles etc strewn all over the beach as no sanitary staffs have been placed on duty at the site. No one knows where the beach belongs to Forest or Tourism Department. It appears that the administration should first develop basic facilities at the existing tourist destinations rather than rushing to open more sites for tourism. Beaches like Bada Balu if properly developed can increase tourist footfalls to a great extent,” said some city residents.