Port Blair, Jan 05: The Humane Touch, an NGO, today requested the Lt. Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands to initiate inquiry regarding the vehicles ferries purchased and which are not pressed into service as those vehicle ferries were unfit and un-seaworthy.
In a letter addressed to the Lt. Governor, the President of Humane Touch, Mr. K.P.Mohammed Younus pointed out that as far as the daily movement of people are concerned, the passenger traffic across the Bambooflat – Chatham sea route is by far the most busy and most frequented route in the whole of A&N Islands.
“According to a rough estimate, daily more than 14000 passengers including students, office goers, daily wage earners, patients, industrial workers and about a thousand vehicles comprising two wheelers, Auto rickshaw, four wheelers, cars etc commute between Bambooflat and Chatham availing vehicle ferry and passenger ferry boats operated by Directorate of Shipping Services (DSS), Mr. Younus mentioned in his letter.
He wrote that Port Blair, being the hub of all citizen centric services namely : the lone referral (GB Pant) Hospital, A&N Administration Secretariat, office of the Hon’ble LG/CS/Deputy Commissioner, Police Headquarters, Civil Courts, Directorates of various offices, Schools, Engineering/Degree Colleges, ITI, Business Establishments, Shops, Airport, Sea port and a whole lot of other public utility services, a good number of people form rural South Andaman i.e., Ferrar Gunj Tehsil area visits Port Blair every day through the sea route between Bambooflat and Chatham to avail these services.
“But the ferry services operated in the route surprisingly remains insufficient, irregular and inadequate both in terms of capacity and frequency as well. Every ferry, be it day or night, rain or sun, sails jam-packed with commuters huddled in every available space. Unable to bear with the erratic ferry services, commuters harped to agitation, filed complaints and even resorted to strikes. Local newspapers had highlighted the plight of the commuters quite a few times, but nothing could see improvement in ferry services causing dissent among the commuters,” he said.
According to Humane Touch, failure of DSS to solve the crisis could be attributed to purchase of boats which are either unfit for operation in island waters or capacity wise they are inadequate.
“The glaring example is two Ro-Ro type ferries (MV Afrabay and MV Karmatang) which are found tethered in Marine/Phoenix Bay jetties without plying. Further the promised induction of vehicle ferries on wet lease is not materializing. What is surprising is even after lapse of years the Ro-Ro type ferries failed to ply, no effort has been made to replace those blunders by appropriate ones. The result is commuters are facing immense hardships due to inadequate and inefficient ferry services. Despite this, it is learnt that Administration is arranging vehicle ferries for Floating restaurant during the ITF. This is being done at the peak of worst boat services during the last fortnight. This shows the apathy and indifference towards the sufferings of the ordinary citizens,” Mr. Younus added.
According to the President of Humane Touch the irony is nobody seems bothered. Commuters on an earlier occasion were promised that that DSS would station one responsible officer at each of the jetties to ensure ferries operate in time and at the time of exigencies they would respond to commuters demand and arrange appropriate ferry to clear stranded passenger’s vehicles etc. But till date, no one has been deployed to listen to the commuters.
“Under such compelling circumstances, we are left with no option but to request His Excellency, the Lt Governor to intervene into the matter and save the commuters from the harassment meted out to them at the hands of inadequate and inefficient ferry service. Further, we request you to initiate enquiries regarding the vehicles ferries purchased and which are not pressed into service due to reasons beyond our comprehension. The persons involved in such purchases causing losses to public exchequer must be brought to the book,” the Humane Touch president added.

Port Blair, Jan 05: In order to educate public and spread awareness about the road safety measures, the A & N Police, in association with Govt. Senior Secondary School, Bambooflat, organized a ‘Road Safety Walk’ on 04/01/2012 from Bambooflat jetty to GSSS, Bambooflat . About sixty students of Govt. Sr. Sec. School, Bambooflat along with Vice Principal, Shri. Ved Prakash Mishra and teachers of the school and several police personnel took part in the ” Walk for Road Safety”. It was organized as a part of “XXIII Road Safety Week” being observed by the A & N Police to create awareness amongst public to make the road safer for the users.

The Deputy Superintendent of Police, Middle Andaman, Shri. Vinit Kumar flagged off the’ Road Safety walk’ at the Bambooflat jetty in the presence of Vice Principal and teachers of Govt. Sr. Sec. School, Bambooflat and SHO PS Bambooflat. The children displayed road safety messages through banners and placards mentioning ” Speed thrills but kills”, ” Day and Night , obey traffic rules” Don’t be hell mate, wear helmet’ etc. The school children marched enthusiastically on the main road leading to Wimberlygunj starting from the Bambooflat jetty.

Port Blair, Jan 03: Mr. R Mohan has requested the Lt. Governor to of A & N Islands to sanction financial assistance to the mother of Late S Hema Rao, who lost his life on 22nd December 2011, following an dinghy accident at high sea because of cyclonic weather, caused by Cylcone Thane.

The body of Hema Rao was found on 29th December 2011 near Madhuban area of South Andaman. On visit to Panighat to meet family members of S Hema Rao, Mohan had found that the widow mother leading a very poor life and after death Hema Rao, the breadwinner of the family.

On this ground Mr. Mohan has requested the Lt. Governor to release some financial assistance for the mother of Late Hema Rao, from Lt. Governor’s relief fund. Mr. Mohanas also requested the Chief Secretary to consider another financial assistance from the Disaster Management Fund as the accident occurred due to cyclonic weather, which is a natural calamity.

Port Blair, Jan 02: The Adhyaksh, Zilla Parishad, South Andaman, Mr. S.S. Balakrishnan Nair along with the Up-Adhyaksh Mr. Sukumar Dasmet Mr. Pradeep Jain Aditya, Minister of State, Ministry of Rural Development, Govt. of India, who is on a visit to the islands presently, during the Minister’s visit to Cellular Jail today. The Adhyaksh submitted a letter addressed to the Minister containing eight important points viz., revision of wages for unskilled Agriculture labourers working under MGNREGA comparing to State Minimum wage for unskilled, creation of durable assets under MGNREGA, strengthening of MIS, release of funds for IAY, relaxations in the norms for BPL families for sanction of IAY, release of funds for implementation of Total Sanitation campaign, National Rural Livelihood Mission, and revision of pay structure of MGNREGA functionaries compared to the salaries of the same rank staff working under NRHM. The Minister is stated to have agreed to do the needful at the earliest, a ZP communiqué said here today.

I extend my heartiest greetings and best wishes for a happy and prosperous new year to the people of A&N Islands. Let the New Year be blesses with joy, happiness, peace, prosperity and unity among us.
Editor
Andaman Sheekha

Port Blair, Dec. 31: Research Link, National level registered journal, Indore, Madhya Pradesh is organizing one day seminar on the topic “How to write good Research Paper”, in the month of February ‘2012 at Port Blair. The proceedings of the seminar and peer-reviewed articles shall be published in the special issue of the journal.
Interested paper presenters may contact Dr. R.V.R. Murthy, Convener and co-editor of the special issue, Department of Political Science, JNRM, Port Blair. Further information can be obtained over Mobile No.9434260714 & email: ven_9268@hotmail.com.

Dear Andaman Sheekha Readers, here is the New Year Gift for you all. I have given a new look to Andaman Sheekha’s Website. I am not a professional, just a beginner but have tried to give a professional look …… a much needed professional look.

Thanks for loving Andaman Sheekha all these four years. This website will not only make your reading more interesting but also make things easier for me and hopefully everyday I will be able to update the site, that too without working till 3.00 am.

I have added a lot of new stuffs, more are to be added. Presently the site is on trial and all visitors will be redirected to my trial folder page, in which I have been working since last seven days….if anything goes wrong (which happened several times in last seven days), we will be back to old page in just a few hours…… hopefully by mid Jan the site, with new look, will be right on its main position.

Those who needs to check archive, just google the word you are looking for. The old data base and archive pages are there in a different but invisible folder.

And yes, this new look wouldn’t have possible without all technical help of Mr. Shibu George, who has taught me a lot of thing, which I never knew. Thanks Shibu Bhai..

Got to make the site more perfect, more catchy………Happy New Year Friends… May God fulfill all your dreams……….Have a wonderful year ahead.

Please give us feed back about the new look…….

Thanks

Sanjib Kumar Roy
Editor
Andaman Sheekha