S Sunder Selvam

Port Blair, Mar 13: Due to lack of proper system and sufficient staffs, the Adhar enrollment has become an impossible task for residents of the area. At Shadipur Community hall on Thursday afternoon things were completely out of control.

Public alleged that only a few staffs were provided for enrollment of hundreds of public and hence it resulted in total disorder and chaos. “We are standing in this long queue for nearly two hours but the queue is hardly moving. Authorities must post more staffs to handle the pressure,” said an old resident of the area.

 

 

 

Port Blair, Mar 08 : The Lt. Governor, Lt. Gen A. K. Singh (Retd.) today appealed to all sections of the society to encourage women to realize their potential and genius. He also emphasised the need for education of women, as education leads to empowerment and can also give them the strength to fight for their rights. The Lt. Governor said this while speaking as the chief guest at a function on the occasion of International Women’s Day celebration at JNRM auditorium. The theme for this year’s observance was “Make it happen”. The function was jointly organized by the State Social Welfare Board and Social Welfare Department.
Among others, the function was attended by the Chief Secretary Shri Anand Prakash, Smt. Rupa Ray, Chairperson, Social Welfare Board, Smti Ratna Kannan, Smt. Sheela Singh, Municipal Councillor besides a host of senior officers of the Administration and a large gathering of women.
Addressing the gathering on the occasion, the Lt Governor, in the first instance, greeted all women on the occasion of International Women’s Day. He said it is a day of global celebration to mark the economic, political and social achievements by women, not only in India but also in the whole World. The Lt Governor said that we in A&N Islands are proud of the achievements and contribution of women in every field.
The Lt Governor said that women have greater moral strength which helps them set a good example for society. He urged the people to recognize the contribution of women in every sphere of life and also to appreciate the sacrifices she makes to take care of her family. It is the responsibility of the Administration to look after every citizen, especially women so that they get equal opportunity, rights, respect and safety, the Lt Governor added.

The Lt Governor also referred to the recent medal winning performance of the islands sportspersons and noted with appreciation that all the medal winners were women and lauded them for bringing laurels to the Islands.

The Lt Governor described women’s empowerment in one word as “freedom of choice”. He urged all to create an environment so that women can exercise their own choice. He also referred to the gender discrimination, which, he said is low here and said that women are well respected and are given opportunity in all walks of life. “Our Islands can be model to the rest of the Country as far as the respect shown to women is concerned. He requested the DGP to create an environment so that women in these islands move forward without fear.

Stating that suicidal tendencies have shown an upsurge in these islands, the Lt Governor urged one and all to put their best effort to reduce the incidence of suicide. In his message to all the women, the Lt Governor said “Since you are undoubtedly strong: first and foremost respect yourself, always give more than you receive, be confident in whatever work you do, continue to be generous, caring and forgiving but not at the cost of your dignity”.

The Lt Governor also felicitated some women for their achievements in their respective fields. The selected women included Ms Deborah, Aysha Majeed, Kanak Radha Chatterjee, Savitri Tirkey (Posthumously), Maya Rani Das, Rani Anbumalar and S J Tamil Selvi.
Ms Reeta Devi, Welfare Officer (women) Social Welfare Department spoke on the topic ‘Safeguards for women within legal framework’ and Smt. Geeta Raj, Ex –Counselor, SSWB, stressed on the need for education of women.

In her welcome address, Chairperson, Social Welfare Board, Smt Ratna Kanan highlighted the importance of International Women’s Day. She also demanded for creating an additional Female Ward at GB Pant Hospital and developing an Old Age Home for the needy people. The function concluded with the vote of thanks proposed by Smt. Irene Nicolas, CDPO, Social Welfare Department.

Vikramaditya
Port Blair, Mar 04: A massive tree with heavy branches today fell on a residential house at Nayapuram village of Wimberlygunj, badly damaging one bedroom and roof canopy of the house. Luckily no one was injured in the accident.
According to villagers a government contractor was cutting tree in the area, without even trimming the heavy branches as per specified norms, and because of total negligence and lack of precaution the tree fell on the house of P Bapu, S/o Late Kunjamu.
“A third-Party was executing the work and hence margin of profit would have become a major concern for the third-party Contractor. Sadly General public paying the price of ill practices in the APWD,” said a villager of the area.
Villagers demand that the district Administration & EE, RCD should guarantee safety of the life & property of the general public before resuming the said work further.
“It won’t take long for the old & dead trees to collapse upon shops, houses or people. The matter is very sensitive. Neither APWD nor District Administration is taking the matter seriously. People living under panic,” said another villager of the area.
There is of course an urgent need to cut dead and old trees but with precaution. There are more than a dozen dead trees on the roadside at Nayapuram village alone which shake & tremble even on plying of vehicular traffic on the roads.
“It is common sense that a tree should be felled only after pruning the heavy branches first. But the Contractor has openly violated the basic tenets of felling a tree,” said a resident of the area.
Today’s accident could have killed many. Movement of people & vehicles were hindered for long because of the incident.

Sarthak Kanjilal
Port Blair, Mar 04: The Jawaharlal Nehru Rajkeeya Mahavidyalaya today conducted an Inter collegiate IT- festival ‘Techno Vaganza’ , which was click started by the Chief Guest Mr Devinder Singh, Secretary (Education) at 9:35 am.
Principal TGCE, Dr. J.D.Singh, HOD, English, Dr. Francis Xavier, staff and students were also present on the occasion.
Addressing the ceremony the Chief Guest Mr Devinder appreciated the efforts of staffs of the college and students. He said that he is very happy to see that JNRM college is having courses like Bachelor of Computer Application as well as Master of Computer Science. He also said that he is very happy to hear that the students of this college are getting gold medals.
In his introductory speech, the HOD, Department of Computer Science, Dr. Vinod N.C briefed about the event and highlighted the performance of students from the department of Computer Science.
He said that the BCA course was started in the college at the year 1999 and after that the college also added MSc Computer Science and this is the third addition of this program Techno Vaganza.
“The first edition of techno vaganza was in the year 2009 and the second was in 2012 and the main motive to conduct this program is that the students are able to meet the students of other colleges and share their experiences,” Dr Vinod said.
The Techno Vaganza-2015 covers various competitions such as Dumb Charades, JAM-Just a minute(Technical), Prasthuti , Bug Hunt, Techno quiz, Ad-Mad. Around 100 students from various educational institutes such as DBRAIT, TGCE, IGNOU, ITI, DDE (AU) and JNRM participated in today’s event.
Earlier, the Principal, JNRM, Dr. Iqbal Ahmad welcomed the gathering and vote of thanks was presented by Mr Rajeev Kumar Tiwari, Assistant Professor.

Port Blair, Mar 03: The Lt Governor reviewed today at Raj Niwas the important issues regarding shipping especially with respect to the availability of mainland vessels in view of the forthcoming summer vacation. He directed that a case should immediately be taken up with the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) to ensure availability of maximum mainland vessels in the forthcoming vacation season to ensure smooth transfer of passengers to and from mainland. The SCI may be requested to adjust/ reschedule their APS schedules/ repair works to ensure maximum availability during the forthcoming peak season.
He also directed that similarly adequate Inter Island vessels should be provided for the people of other Islands to travel to mainland during vacation period, for which again adequate coordination with the SCI must be carried out as they are the Technical Manager for the Mainland and Inter Island vessels.

Sarthak Kanjilal
Port Blair, Feb 26: Staffs of establishment section of Education Department today escaped a major accident narrowly when a Cement Boulder fell right on the desk of a clerk, who was in leave.
The Cement Boulder, bigger than the size of a football fell from roof top and after making a hole in the ceiling it fell on the clerk’s table. The Cement Boulder later fell on the floor after damaging the table slightly.
According to reports since a few days some repair works are being carried out by APWD, through private contractor on the roof top but before carrying out the repair works the department neither felt it necessary to shift the establishment section of Education Department nor to intimate the staffs. Ignoring safety of staffs the works were carried out during working hours. Many believe that today’s accident could have killed one or two people.
A peon had left the table just a few minutes before the accident therefore he escaped a major accident narrowly.
According to sources other staffs present inside the room were terrified and a few were shivering out of fear.
The accident occurred this afternoon and when Andaman Sheekha team visited the Education Department there was no one to give an official comment.

Sarthak Kanjilal

Port Blair, Feb 19: The Deputy Superintendent of traffic, Mr M. Umar today said that the traffic department has started a special drive against the vehicle owners who are parking their vehicles on the road side at night hours.

Talking to Andaman Sheekha, Mr Umar said that last week the Traffic unit organised an awareness programme regarding this and now the unit has started imposing challan after 9 PM on whoever parks their vehicles at road sides.

“Parking at roadsides causes a lot of in convenience, it creates traffic jam and it can also cause a lot of problems for Fire Brigade and Ambulance in case of any emergency,” Mr Umar said.

Further he also requested the commercial vehicle owners to park their vehicle at place, for which they have been given permit. “We want to run the traffic smoothly and want to minimize number of fatal accidents. We don’t want to harass anybody,” Mr Umar added.

Staff Correspondent
Port Blair, Feb 23: In mainland India Swine flu claimed the lives of 21 more people today as the toll reached 833 across the country while the number of persons affected by H1N1 virus breached the 14,000 mark.
Here is Andaman there is still confusion about the total number of Swine Flu cases. While some officials claim that total number of Swine Flu cases is just one while contact cases are six some other officials claim that altogether five Swine Flu cases have been reported from Andaman.
However, only thing which is clear till now is that none of the cases are severe and there is nothing to panic but still the Directorate of Health Service instead of giving filtered information about Swine Flu to selective newspapers must issue daily updates to media via IP Division for the information of General Public. The Directorate of Health Service must note that correct and timely information to public is the best way to tackle panic among people.

Sarthak Kajilal

Port Blair, Feb 19: A jeep rolled off Japan Nallah road today afternoon at 12:15pm. According to a resident of UP Basti, the road known as Japan Nallah road is steep and treacherous, because of which the driver of the jeep couldn’t negotiate with the turning, which resulted in the accident. Other than the driver there was an eight year old child inside the Jeep but no injuries were reported.

It is also learnt that a few months ago a van also rolled off from the same place and one died in the accident. A case has been registered in Pahargaon Police Station, sources said.