Senthil, Trinath & Sarthak Kanjilall

Port Blair, September 07: Basic COVID-19 safety protocols, like maintaining the required physical distance, was allegedly compromised inside the Community Health Center of Rangat today, it is learnt.

According to the allegations of outpatients, today it was seen that inside a single small chamber, 03 lady doctors were examining 03 patients at a time, and dozens of patients were waiting outside the chamber for their turn to come, without maintaining any physical distancing.

“It doesn’t seem like the doctors are maintaining adequate distance, why all the 03 doctors were asked to sit in a single chamber when there are other chambers for the doctors, in the CHC Rangat?” questioned an outpatient who left without seeing a doctor, out of fear.

Residents of Rangat have requested the intervention of the higher authorities to give necessary direction to the management of the hospital before the situations goes out of control due to the lackadaisical attitude.

However, when contacted Chief Medical Officer, Rangat, Dr. Ajit Kumar he said that there are two chambers in the hospital and the second chamber is the fever clinic, which was separated to look after the patients, who come with fever, cough, cold et cetera so that they don’t get mixed up with other patients.

Although this is a good idea to keep the fever clinic separate but crowding inside and out the other room is not justified in any way, public allege.

 

John Wilbert & Sarthak Kanjilall

Billyground, September 06: Gunshot sounds in the Andaman Islands are now worrying the Wildlife division of the Forest Department.

On the 04th of September 2020,a bird viz ‘Malayan Night Heron’ said to be one of the rarest birds of the Andaman Group of Islands fell victim to a gunshot, attempted by some unknown hunter at Bharatpur, Middle Andaman.

The Malayan Night-Heron is nocturnal, it is a solitary forager that feeds by walking slowly at the edges of the water, fields, and other feeding areas.

Due to the airgun shot, the bird suffered some serious injuries and treatment is currently on in the local veterinary hospital.

Talking to Andaman Sheekha, the Division Forest Officer, Middle Andaman said that the bird is being treated for the injuries and will be kept under the care of the Forest Department until the bird recovers completely.

The bird rescue operation was handled by the Forest Guard Mr. D. Shekhar under the overall supervision of Mr. Satyaprakash Singh IFS, DFO, Middle Andaman Forest Division.

It was Mr. Amit Adhikari, who sighted the injured bird first and informed the Forest authorities.

Talking to Andaman Sheekha, the DFO, Middle Andaman said that Airgun hunting has become a menace in the Islands and the department is making all possible efforts to curb this menace through spreading awareness about birds conservation and by booking the offenders under relevant sections of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972.

DFO(MA) further appealed to the general public to help the department in nabbing the offender.

 

Trinath & Sarthak Kanjilall

Port Blair, September 04: After several complaints came to light about commuters facing hurdles to cross the Andaman Trunk Road convoy, the Secretary, Tribal Welfare Department has now issued an order and listed out the preferences that will be given to the vehicles for crossing the convoy.

Andaman Sheekha had reported about one such issue in 04th September 2020 edition and pointed out that how a STS bus with dozens of passengers got delayed due to confusion, in absence of proper direction on priorities on the release of vehicles in the ATR Convoy.

In an order issued today by the Secretary, Tribal Welfare stated that the first preference in the Middle Strait, Gandhighat Jetty, Nilambur Jetty, and Uttara Jetty will be given to the Ambulance carrying referred patients, on-duty fire tenders, mortuary van carrying the dead body, on-duty disaster management vehicles and to the vehicles on law and order duty.

He mentioned that the second preference will be accorded to passenger buses both government and private.

Public utility vehicles that include vehicles carrying POL products, LPG Cylinders, Milk, Vegetable, and Fruits will be given the third preference as stated by the Secretary, TWD. Lastly, individual and government vehicles will be allowed to cross the convoy, stated the Secretary, TWD in his order.

The Secretary, TWD has requested the public to strictly adhere to the priority and warned the public that any violations will be taken seriously and action as per law will be taken against the violators.

 

Venkat, John Wilbert & Gracy Tripathy

Port Blair, September 3: Once again Mr. M P Abdul Rasheed came forward to help needy people of these Islands. This time he along with his team provided help to some Auto Drivers, who are suffering heavily during lockdowns.

In this state of extreme peril, Mr.Rasheed and his team hasn’t stepped back from reaching out to the helpless and needy.

Mr. M P Abdul Rasheed a Social Worker, is also popularly known as ‘Ration Rasheed’ due to his kind gesture of distributing free ration to people since the first Lockdown.

Yesterday Mr. Rasheed along with few youths of Haddo packed and distributed more than 100 ration kits consisting of essential commodities to the auto- drivers (the daily earners/the main sufferers of the lockdown) of Haddo Ward No. 1&2 in the Haddo ground.

When Andaman Sheekha contacted Mr. Rasheed and his team he said that in this whole lockdown situation, there are many people who are badly hit but it was very difficult for the auto rickshaw drivers.

“According to me, they were allowed to earn only for fifteen days during the entire lockdown period, which had led them to face difficulties in their livelihood. Therefore, we have come up to distribute ration to them. When we were reaching out to the other hard struck people, we gave a thought for the auto drivers too. Hence, I along with the volunteers decided to help especially the ones who are the residents of Haddo, in whatever way open to us,” he said.

He further added the main reason behind this act is to encourage and motivate other able islanders to come forward and give a helping hand towards their respective area’s auto drivers and daily wage earners.

 

Trinath & Sarthak Kanjilall
Mayabunder, September 02: While Andaman along with the country, stepped into the Unlock 4.O phase with relaxation given in almost all sectors, the Businessmen community in these Islands who are already under tremendous problems due to the COVID situation is aghast and pained at imposing the timing restriction by the Andaman and Nicobar Administration on the functioning of shops and markets. As per the SOP issued by the Administration, the shops and markets are to operate from 8.30 AM to 6.30 PM.
As per the farmers, the current order of opening and shutting shops and other business establishments from 08:30 AM to 06:30 PM has brought in enormous difficulties for them as they are unable to sell theirs produces and other catches in this time frame.
Meanwhile, raising serious concern over the timing fixed for shops, the petty shop owners, especially who runs the tea shops said that if they open the shop at 08:30 AM, it takes at least 30 minutes to prepare the tea and according to them, no one comes at 09:00 AM to have tea or coffee.
The farmers and the petty shop owners in the North and Middle Andaman said that the timing fixed during the unlock 03, was more or less acceptable to them, as these are the time when the consumers come to the market for purchases.
The Adhyaksh of North and Middle Andaman Zilla Parishad, Mr. Dipankar Mistry has also written a letter to the District Commissioner, Mayabunder and stated that most of the people come to buy the vegetables and fishes in the early morning hours and the timing fixed in the unlock 04 will bring difficulties for farmers as no customers will come to buy the products, which in turn will cause huge loss to farmers and petty businessmen.
Meanwhile, some businessmen in the South Andaman area have also expressed concerns over this issue.
“It is felt by a major portion of the businessman that the closure time of 6.30 PM needs to be further extended till 8.30 PM as this period forms to be the crucial business time for almost all commercial establishments. On behalf of the business community, I, therefore request Administration to extend the closure time and all the businesses to operate till 8.30 PM instead of 6.30 PM,” Mr. Abdul Siddique, a Social Worker and Businessman of Port Blair city told Andaman Sheekha today.

 

Vikramaditya
Port Blair, Aug 28: A major fire incident was averted today at Ratnam Market area of Aberdeen Bazaar, when a fire erupted from a toy shop, situated next to Majestic Cool Bar, at around 11.30 AM but the fire was quickly doused by A & N Fire Service unit.
According to report the fire call was received at around 11.30 AM by Fire Service control room and within few minutes three fire tenders from Aberdeen Fire Station and Mohanpura Fire Station reached the spot.
As soon as a shutter of the shop was opened within five minutes the Fire was doused by Fire Services Jawans.
Considering the number of shops and business establishments in the area, it is believed that Fire Service have saved properties worth millions and also averted a major disaster. It is said that the cause of fire was short circuit.