Bureau Report
Port Blair, Jan. 9: During the RT-PCR test conducted on 435 passengers who arrived here yesterday, 129 positive cases have been detected. Today, 14 flights with 1623 passengers arrived, out of which, 1310 passengers were vaccinated with both doses while RT-PCR test was conducted on 308 passengers (includes 08 foreign travellers) and the reports are awaited.

A detailed report published in evening says total number of positive cases has jumped to 175 day, out of which 129 are Airport Arrival and 46 are contacts of earlier cases. With these cases now there are 322 active cases in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

During RAT conducted on 55 passengers bound for North & Middle Andaman at Ferrargunj, all the tests were found negative. At Mohanpura Bus Terminus, test was conducted on 35 passengers and all were found negative. Apart from this, RTPCR test was conducted on 14 crew members of MV Rangat and reports are awaited. Today, till 3 pm, 209 eligible beneficiaries were vaccinated, a press release from Directorate of IP&T said.

John Wilbert & Vikramaditya
Port Blair, Jan 07: Suspense over the mysterious and unidentified flying object continued even today as the same balloon was reportedly spotted at Mayabunder in afternoon hours and Diglipur region in the evening hour.
Meanwhile, no agency has come forward today with any clarification in this regard, making things more suspicious.
However, after Andaman Sheekha Daily’s report published on 07 Jan 2022, many readers claimed that the object was weather balloon released by IMD but IMD officials today clarified that they have no idea about the flying object and the unidentified object is not the PB ‘Pilot Balloon’ released by IMD.
A senior officer of IMD who does not want his name to be quoted today said that IMD releases three weather balloons in a day, earlier IMD used to release white colour balloons, but now due to some instrumental issue, they have stopped using white balloon.
“Now in a day, three times, red colour balloons are released from IMD Port Blair, once in the morning, once in afternoon and once at night hours. It’s called a pilot balloon and is released only in clear weather,” he added.
He added that the balloon released by IMD usually goes out of our sight within half an hour. “But the particular object, spotted yesterday, was in suspended motion and any instrument can be placed on that but we have no information. Those who launched the object can tell you why they have launched it,” he said.

John Wilbert & Vikramaditya
Port Blair, Jan 06: In a curious development, an unidentified flying object was spotted by hundreds of residents of Port Blair city since this afternoon.
Since the object was at high altitude, higher than some clouds, it appeared as if the object is stationary and hovering just over our head.
The white sphere shaped object, looking somewhat like weather balloon, attracted many eyeballs because of its size and shiny white surface.
Many Port Blairians took photos and shared in social media while others took videos.
A few enthusiasts took photographs of the sphere with the help of zoom lenses, and the zoomed photo made it clear that the flying object doesn’t look like weather balloon.
While weather balloons are balloon shaped, this Unidentified Flying Object was round, weather balloons gain height with time, but this object was maintaining height and drifting in almost same altitude.
Zoomed photograph showed some eight dark panel shaped equipment/objects attached to the flying object, which were hanging in disorderly manner, as if some parts are damaged.
IMD officials were not available over phone but sources told Andaman Sheekha that the object was not released from IMD.
Even Andaman and Nicobar Command PRO told Andaman Sheekha that the object is not related to the ANC.
Later a police team was also found following the object and gathering information regarding the Unidentified Flying Object.
However large number of people maintained that it was a weather balloon but there are equal numbers of people who disagree.
It seems no one has any answer regarding the Unidentified Flying Object, seen today by hundreds of Islanders.
Now question is which agency has placed the object in the sky and why? If this object is not released by any agencies in Andaman then was it sent for spying? But in this age of ultra advanced satellites, who will use a flying object to spy?
Till any official release is issued by Administration in this regard, people will continue to discuss and argue in social media on this issue. However, an answer will bring this issue to a logical conclusion, which matters much for general public.

John Wilbert & Vikramaditya
Port Blair Jan 05: A massive fire was reported today from Prem Nagar Basti this afternoon, which resulted in fire in six houses, in which three wooden houses were completely gutted while three other houses suffered heavy damages. As per reports, a 35 year old man was found dead from one of the houses.

As per the public, the fire spread within minutes from one particular house and all belongings of the house were soon reduced to ashes. The incident was reported at around 03:30 PM. The source of the fire was from that particular house and the body of the 35 year old man, Mr. Arul Pandi, was found from the same house, which raises suspicion whether the fire was caused, because of any self immolation attempt.

The deceased was reportedly making a scene in the area since afternoon under heavy influence of alcohol.

Soon youths of the area and nearby people swung into action and prevented spread fire to nearby houses by throwing water.

On report, the Fire Brigade team reached the spot and within 1 hour and 30 minutes the fire was brought under total control.
The Fire Service jawans, despite a clear shortage of men, worked professionally and managed to control the fire and prevented it from spreading in nearby houses.

Savita Kumari
Port Blair, Jan 05: Frequent sighting of crocodiles in the Nallah near Pinakinagar and Jaipur villages has allegedly triggered a sense of fear among residents of the area.
In this regard Mr. Manojit Halder, President of Betapur Block Congress Committee, Billiground has demanded to shift the crocodiles to a safe zone in order to avoid any kind of human-animal conflict.
According to Mr. Halder, frequent movement of crocodiles in the Nallah between Korang nallah Bridge to Pinakinagar Bridge beside the playground of GMS Billiground has been reported since the last 5 to 6 months.
He claimed that a written complaint has been given to the higher authorities of the Forest Department by him but as per Mr. Halder till date, no action has been initiated to shift the crocodiles.
“Only some forest labourers have been deputed for making announcements that no one should venture into or beside the Nallah,” he alleged.
He added that nowadays the villagers are having acute shortage of water for their crops and domestic animals and for the same reason, they need to utilize the water from nearby Nallah. Besides that, some villagers cross the Nallah to minimize their journey time to home at Kamalapur, Pinakinagar I & II. But the increase in sightings of the crocodiles in these areas has triggered panic among villagers, he alleged.
The President BBCC has written a letter to the Member of Parliament and urged him to take up this matter with competent authorities for shifting the crocodiles to a safe zone.