Port Blair, Aug 27: Mr. Kuldeep Rai Sharma, President, Pradesh Congress Committee met to the Secretary (Transport), A & N Administration and requested him for an exclusive bus services from Chatham to JNRM college and back for the College girls, who are coming in a large number by boat from South Andaman.

Mr. Sharma has also apprised him that Port Blair being the main point for the mainland and foreign based incoming and outgoing tourists, A/C Coaches in STS buses may be introduced to enable them and as well to our islanders to have a pleasant journey.

Mr. Sharma furhter requested to the Secretary Transport to earmark at least two seats for the inter Island students in the inter-island bus services.

Mr. Sharma also informed about difficulties being faced by the residents of Ramnagar, Kalighat for non availability of bus services connecting to Port Blair. He also requested for introduction of bus services from Ramnagar to Port Blair and vice-versa. He also advocated for night bus services between Port Blair-Mayabunder-Diglipur and vice-versa.

Mr. Sharma has also requested for display of electronic boards at Port Blair bus terminus and other main bus terminuses of the islands so that the passengers can get prompt information of arrival and departure of their desired bus. The Secretary Transport gave a patient hearing and assured that he will look into these matter and take suitable action.

 

Port Blair, Aug 13: This is for the information of the passengers that due to administrative reasons the scheduled sailing programme of MV Nancowry for Vizag on 19.08.2012 (Sun) has been postponed. Now the vessel is planned to sail for Vizag on 20.08.2012 (Mon) at 1800 hours from Haddo Wharf. Similarly the vessel will sail from Vizag to Port Blair on 24.08.2012 (Fri) at 1000 hours instead of 23.08.2012.

Port Blair, Aug 06: The Department of Fisheries, A&N Administration invites applications from the fishers/tribes of A&N Islands possessing registered traditional fishing craft and valid fishing license for availing the subsidy for purchase of inboard/outboard engines under the centrally sponsored scheme “Motorization of Traditional Craft”. The programme envisages providing of subsidy @ 50% of the unit cost with a maximum ceiling of Rs.30,OOO/- per outboard/inboard engine of not more than 30 Break Horse Power (BHP). The fishers/ tribes who have availed assistance for the similar purpose from the department during the last 03 (three) years will not be eligible for the assistance during 2012-13.

Application form and detailed terms and conditions of the programme can be obtained from the Directorate of Fisheries/all Fisheries Zonal Offices/Fisheries Sub-Offices/Zilla Parishads and the completed applications may be submitted to the concerned Fisheries Zonal Offices/Fisheries Sub-Offices/Zilla Parishads or at Directorate of Fisheries, Port Blair. The application form can also be down loaded from the A&N Administration’s website, www.and.nic.in. The application should reach the concerned offices on or before 09.09.2012.

Port Blair, Aug 06: The Lt Governor Lt Gen (Retd) Bhopinder Singh, PVSM, AVSM will be on a day’s visit to Car Nicobar on August 08, 2012.

The programme of the Lt Governor during his stay there includes releasing of documents and presenting the document of Organic Fruit & Vegetable Programme to the Tribal Council at a function at Tribal Community Hall, Tamaloo and planting of vegetable/fruit sapling at the Mission Plot in the same village. On completion of visit, the Lt Governor will return to Port Blair in the afternoon.

Port Blair, July 17: The Non-Gazetted Govt. Officers’ Association, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Centre of Indian Trade Unions jointly organized a Mass Demonstration at 4 p.m. today (17th July, 2012) in front of the office of the Superintending Engineer, Electricity Department at Port Blair to protest against the hike in the power tariff and frequent power cut.
Mr. B. Chandrachoodan, General Secretary, CITU, Mr. D. Ayyappan, General Secretary, Mr. Sadanand Rai, Vice President, Mr. TS Sreekumar, Assistant General Secretary, Mr. HL Prasad, Vice President and Mr. SL Vinjit, Organising Secretary of NGOs’ Association led the mass demonstration. Addressing the gathering, leaders of CITU and NGOs’ Association criticized the A & N Administration for the steep increase in the electricity tariff. They had also demanded immediate measures by the Administration to end the frequent power cut at Port Blair and South Andaman areas. A large number of government employees and workers working at Port Blair participated in the programme.

Port Blair, July 11: Instances have come to notice in various police forces in the country whereby some criminally minded individuals including police officials and political workers have tried to project that they can use their influence or ‘fix’ recruitment. The modus operandi is to accept money from whoever can be trapped into their net. When the results are announced there are bound to be some of these candidates who get in on their merit. The rest are refunded their money after retaining a portion of it as ‘expenses already incurred’, and excuses are made that they were late in joining the scheme, etc.

People duped by the above process also spend their entire lives feeling they did not deserve the job, but have got it in an underhand way.

All members of the public and all candidates are warned not to be misled and cheated.

The selection process for sub-inspectors is to start shortly. The A & N Police will go strictly by merit, the Director General of Police said in a press release here today.

Port Blair, July 01: The Inter Media Publicity Coordination Committee(IMPCC) reviewed the performance of different media units and departments during the meeting held at Directorate of Agriculture at Port Blair on 29th last.

Addressing the members, the IMPCC Chairman, R Mohan informed that the Doordarshan has launched an exclusive farm news programme to cover wide range of activities in the field of agriculture. He called upon the agriculture department officials to feed relevant inputs for the programme, and also plan for coverage of innovative farm activities in different islands. He said the farm news programme will be telecast on Mondays and Thursdays every week for the duration of ten minutes.

He also paid rich compliments to the effective implementation of high value coconut mission in Nicobar group of islands. He informed that the IMPCC will arrange for a visit of the media team to Nancowrie and Car Nicobar in coordination with agriculture department to focus on the achievements made under the programme in far flung islands.

The Director of Agriculture, M A Salam informed that the Directorate of Agriculture implements various programmes including Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana(RKVY) for the benefits of the farmers and development of agriculture in the region. He said during the current Khariff campaign, the department will provide necessary farm inputs and technical guidance to the farmers to increase the crop yield. He added that necessary steps are being taken to encourage the farmers to produce and use vermicompost in large scale and thereby promoting organic farming in the islands.

The Deputy General Manager of NABARD, Anantakrishnan revealed that NABARD executes many programmes for providing necessary financial assistance and attractive subsidies to the farmers to under take advanced farming activities. He said NABARD also actively engages in forming self help groups(SHG) in the islands and during the last one year more than 500 SHGs were formed. He said the SHG members can approach the banks for getting necessary loans under government schemes and the NABARD will release the subsidy part through the banks. He also informed that NABARD has provided 8 freezers to the fishermen in Campbell bay to preserve their marine products for longer duration.

Commenting on certain media reports on cattle menace in public places, the Asst Commissioner of Police, Chinmoy Biswal clarified that the Zilla Parishad and Municipal Corporation deals with the matter and they can take necessary steps in the matter to avoid such nuisance. Regarding fraudulent emails and SMS on winning of lottery or prize money sent from foreign countries, he cautioned the people not to fall prey to such messages. He said the police department already issued a detailed press release to warn the people and inform them of the RBI directives.

The Divisional Forest Officer, B P Yadav briefed on important programmes organised by Forest department to mark world environment day, besides the programmes being planned to celebrate a month long vanmahotsav in July.

The officer in charge of Zoological Survey of India, Ragunathan informed that the organization has already started an extensive survey on Sea-cucumbers in the islands to submit a comprehensive report to the government to plan for protecting these rare species covered under Schedule I. He revealed that 92 species of sea-cucumbers are available in the islands, of which only 12 have commercial value due to their medicinal properties.

Dr Murugan from Botanical Survey of India informed that the department conducts a survey of different plant varieties in the islands and the survey is in full swing in Great Nicobar.

The Doordarshan programme Head, Sajan informed that Doordarshan is going to start a new reality show to project the best farmers of the islands. The reality show will be telecast in 30 episodes.

DVS Deep, The Deputy Director of News, All India Radio highlighted the important news based programmes broadcast on the selected themes. He said the remarkable achievements made by the primitive tribe Great Andamanese boys in the field of education and facilitation of the boys by the Islands Governor at Raj Niwas were covered exclusively. The Transmission Executive from AIR, Shibu briefed on the programme activities of AIR during the month.

Briefing on the themes selected for coverage by the Units during the next month, A Dhanasekaran, Asst Director from PIB informed that the health department launches a month long Anti Dengue campaign in July to prevent the spread of infectious diseases during the rainy season, besides the month long Vanmahotsav by the forest department. He said Anti Dengue and campaign, Vanmahotsav and Self employment programmes including SHG and PMEGP were selected as themes for the next month, as suggested by the Chairman and members. He also briefed on the activities carried out by the Press Information Bureau during the month.

The next meeting of the IMPCC will be held at Zoological Survey of India office on 27th July by 3 pm.(PIB)

Sarthak Kanjilal

Port Blair, June 29: No death because of Dengue has been reported in Andaman & Nicobar Islands since 2010, the Health Department said here today. The fact was relieved by Health Department during a press conference organized today at Ayush Hospital in connection with observance of “Anti Dengue Month” in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. According to details in 2010 two deaths were reported from South Andaman region because of Dengue.
Addressing the press conference the Director of health department Dr. S.K.Paul told that this vector borne disease can also cause death. “To control this we are doing a lot of hard work. And that’s why we are observing Anti Dengue Month as we do every year to aware public,” Dr. Paul said.
He said that health department cannot eradicate Dengue all alone and to stop dengue he urged the support of media in spreading awareness.
Further the Deputy Director Dr. B.P.Saha gave a complete presentation about the different types of Dengue, and informed media persons about its symptoms, precautions and preventions and urged the society to keep the environment clean as that is the best way of getting rid off Dengue.