Port Blair, Jan 02: Workers and employees of Electricity Department under the aegis of the Joint Action Committee of Electricity Unions staged a demonstration in front of the Secretariat on 30th December, 2011 to protest, against the arbitrary decision of the Administration to hand over various functions/works of the Electricity Department to private firms in the name of Common Service Centres. Hundreds of employees and workers participated in the mass demonstration who later took out a procession, went to the Office premises of the Superintending Engineer, Electricity Department, staged a demonstration there and then converged into a public meeting at Tiranga Park, Aberdeen Bazar. Addressing the public meeting, leaders of the Joint Action Committee criticized the Administration for not even discussing with the Unions the issue raised by the employees and workers. They said that assigning of government work/functions to private firms is part of the privatizations-spree followed by the central government over the years. B. Chandrachoodan, D. Laxman Rao, Veeranna, NKP Nair and Vine^sh Narayan addressed the meeting which was presided over by M. Sadasivan. A resolution was passed in the public meeting urging the Administration to withdraw the assigning of payment of electricity bills to private firms and to restore the work to Electricity Department. In the meantime, the Bijli Kaamgar Union (CITU) has conducted a mass demonstration in front of the office of the Executive Engineer, Electricity Department at Diglipur on the above issue in which a large number of workers participated.

Port Blair, Jan 01: A vegetable IPM programme was organised by the Ferrarganj-Central Integrated Pest Management Centre a tFerrarganj recently. The programme aimed at creating awareness about IPM practices amongst the farmers. The Pradhan of the area,   Shri Sunil Kumar was also present on the occasion. It was inaugurated by the Plant Protection Officer (Ento.). Speaking on the occasion the Smt. Sophio Riphung enlightened the farmers to grow healthy crop and to avoid dependency on chemical pesticides and further demonstrated the use ofTrichoderma virede as seed treatment for vegetables. This was further elaborated by the APPO, Shri S.C.Bairagi about soil incorporated of T. virede and various technical methods in the IPM context. The APPO, ShriP.Prakash Rao spoke on the pest and defenders available in the field. Thirty farmers participated in the programme, a communication said.

Port Blair, Jan 01: The Andaman & Nicobar Traffic Police has kicked off their one week long programmes of 23rd RoadSafety week 2012 today by organizing a blood donation camp at Fire Brigade Headquarters here in a befitting manner.

The DIGP (L&O), Shri. Anand Mohan, who was the chief guest on the occasion, extended his new yeargreetings to all participants and explained the importance of road safety week.

The Superintendent of Police, District South Andaman, Shri S.B.S. Tyagi advised the participants to respect the traffic rules on the road so that the accidents can be minimized and precious lives could be saved. The DIGP (L&O), Shri Anand Mohan and the Superintendent of Police, District South Andaman also donated their blood for the good cause. Dr.Wajid Ali Shah the Pathologist from DHS apprised the gathering about blood donation and its objectives. In all 32 participants including Traffic Police, IRBn, auto drivers and truck drivers donated their blood during the function. As many as 200 police personnel including public have participated in the programme.

Meanwhile, the local residents, parents, teachers and guardians, have been requested to ensure that their wards don’t drive without helmets, proper driving licence and in drunken condition. They are further advised not to have tinted glass and fancy number plates on their vehicles, a communication from the SP (D) said here today.

Port Blair, Dec. 31:  Yet another year has rolled by paving the way for the New Year. The bygone year has witnessed progress on many faceted developments in the country as also in our Territory. While entering into the New Year people have a strong belief that the New Year will bring in further peace and tranquillity apart from bringing about faster pace of development in all spheres of life.

The Lt. Governor, Lt. Gen (Retd.) Bhopinder Singh, PVSM, AVSM has extended his best wishes to the people of A&N Islands for a happy, peaceful and prosperous New Year.  In his message, the Lt. Governor said, ‘I pray that the New Year will usher in peace, progress and prosperity in the life of our people. Let us work with renewed vigour and unity to take ourIslandsto new heights of development. I am confident that our people will wholeheartedly and collectively contribute for the all-round development of theIslands’.

The Member of Parliament, Shri Bishnu Pada Ray has extended heartiest greetings and best wishes for happy and prosperous new year to the people ofA&NIslands.

In his greetings on the occasion, Shri Ray said let the new year be blessed with joy, happiness, peace, prosperity and unity among us.

The Adhyaksh, Zilla Parishad, South Andaman, Shri S.S. Balakrishnan Nair has also greeted the people of Andaman and Nicobar Islands on the occasion of New Year and wished them peace, prosperity and happiness.

The Chairperson, PBMC, Smt. Firdosh Bibi in her greetings wished the people ofA&NIslandsa happy, peaceful and prosperous New Year.

The President, Pradesh Congress Committee, Shri Kuldeep Rai Sharma and other leaders and workers of Congress Party have extended their greetings and best wishes to the people ofA&NIslandsfor a happy New Year 2012.

The State President, BJP, Shri R. Mohan and all the leaders, workers and staff have also wished a happy and prosperous New Year.

Port Blair, Dec 30: Tsunami Day 2011 was observed at Car Nicobar on 26.12.2011 at 0800 hours. Deputy Commissioner, Nicobar District, Vice Chief Captain, Tribal Council, Assistant Commissioner (HQ), Heads of Office in Car Nicobar, Village Captains and general public attended the function despite inclement weather condition. Wreath was placed at the Tsunami Memorial, Big Lapathy Village, Car Nicobar by Deputy Commissioner, Nicobars, Shri Rupesh Kumar Thakur. Wreaths and floral tributes were also paid by other dignitaries. This was followed by two minutes silence to pay homage to all the departed souls in the disaster. Prayers of all religions (Sarva Dharma Prathna Sabha) were also conducted.

 

Port Blair, Dec 30: The valedictory function of training programme to members of core team and trainers of Industries, Agriculture, and ITI which was started on 20-12-2011 and Inaugural function of new batch of trainers in food processing on marine and coconut based products was organized by UNNATI on 30-12-2011 with the support of ENI India Ltd/ONGC and NABARD in association with Directorate of Agriculture, Industries, ITI.Mr.AS.Dagar, Secretary of (Fisheries, Agriculture and Co-operation) was the chief guest.

Mr. Abdul Majeed Secretary Island Fisheries Co-operative Society representatives of Fisherman welcomed the chief guest and others, and appreciated the efforts of Secretary (Fisheries) for various support to fishermen. He said his efforts to arrange loan to fishermen to purchase fishing boats is praise worthy. He also highly welcomed the initiative of UNNATI for providing them the opportunity for value addition of the fish to enhance their income.

Mr. C. Mohammed President, UNNATI expressed his gratitude for the excellent support extended by line departments in setting up and managing the food processing center. He said UNNATI is also working in the field of livelihood/ self-employment which would be successful if we train our manpower for utilization of locally available raw-materials. Therefore UNNATI is giving much focus in training people on coconut and marine based products under food processing sector. Absence of food technologists are the main hurdle for promotion of food processing in theseIslands. Therefore, we need to develop the capacity and skill of our trainers by getting resource person frequently from mainland who are experts in making coconut and marine based products. He said he has taken up the matter with the Chief Secretary on18-12-2011for hiring Food Technologist for training trainers and also depute our trainers for short term course being conducted by CFTRI and other organization. He further said that the interests which are being shown by PRIs and NGOs for adopting food processing training are very encouraging. On29-12-2011President, Yuva Sakti visited the center with 25 Self Help Group members to show them the process of making coconut desiccated powder. Similarly Pradhan Stewartgunj visited the food processing centers with 26 Self Help Group members. He said of Administration may consider to set up cottage scale coconut desiccated plant in coconut growing area including tribal area to use the plant on nominal charge to increase the income of coconut growers through the process of value addition of coconut and in getting remunerative price for coconut. He also said Food Processing training progress will be arranged in association with Agriculture & Industry Department in remote places from where the trainees are finding difficulties to come & stay at Port Blair. Already proposal from Panchayat received for conducting training in their respective area.

Mr. A.S.Dagar Chief Guest appreciated the efforts of UNNATI for providing self-employment opportunities through locally available raw materials. He said unemployment is a serious problem particularly when government job has reached to a saturating point. Therefore we should exploit the self-employment opportunities with quality training and arrangement for marketing of the products. He said UNNATI’s food technologists will also provide escort source for 2 years for assistance in preparing project report, setting up units, and availing loan for financial institutions etc. He urged the trainees should take advantage of the opportunity and adopt food processing as means of their livelihood he said various assistance and concessions are available from Govt. also. He assumed his full support from the Agriculture and Fisheries Department under his change. He also said that trainees may form cooperative societies to avail various subsidies for management of the organization and marketing of the products. The certificates to the trainees were distributed by S/S .A.S.Dagar Secretary (Fisheries, Agriculture & Cooperative) M. A. Salam, Director of Agriculture, Dr. Ananthakrishnan, Deputy General Manager, NABARD and Dr.Krishnamorthy Director Fisheries.

The training to core team/traines was conducted by Mr.T.R. Prabhu Food Consultant and Retired Scientist of CFTRI and training to candidates is conducted by Mr. Neeraj Sharma Food Technologist of UNNATI assisted by other trainers and resource person of the departments.

Port Blair, Dec 29: Marriage processions in city is making lives miserable for others despite of the fact that the Administration has framed a fresh set of guidelines a few months back. Today one such marriage procession could be seen causing sound pollution and disrupting traffic at Bengali Club Junction. This is not the only such marriage procession, shop owners of Bengali Club junction allege that they have seen many such marriage processions in last two months, where new guidelines were openly violated.