Serendipity : Musings of an Islander

Public toilet kept under lock and key since inauguration. It’s more than a year and half as of now. Wielding a broom cleaning  road at   Raj Ghat on the  occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi made a statement which had the day’s memoir re-written. The gesture had such a tremendous appeal that a large section of the citizenry stood to count itself to further the cause of Swachh Bharat (Clean India Mission). The union territory of Andaman & Nicobar Islands too joined the nationwide campaign which is being seen as the biggest ever cleanliness drive in  the history of India. Leading from the front, the Honble Lt Governor of A&N Islands Lt General (Retd) A K Singh, PVSM, AVSM, SM, VSM, the Member of Parliament Shri Bishnu Pada Ray, Chairperson Zilla Parishad, Head of various Govt Directorates/Departments, Panchayati Raj Institutions, Schools, Colleges, Central Govt Organisations, Non Govt Organisations, Service Orga...

Proposed ANCOL at C hakkargaon contravenes M aster P lan – 2030 There has been a large hue and cry  ever since it has been made public that the proposed G ovt college namely   ANCOL   (A ndaman C ollege) will have its permanent campus at C hakkargaon in P ort B lair. Members of the public, elected representatives, political organizations and their likes had opined that since P ort B lair town already has one G ovt college   (JNRM)   of the same type, the second one be established in rural area. The views expressed by the public however did not cut ice with the bureaucratic set up governing the islands. In a bid to assert itself the project proponents chose to overlook public demand and in doing so, it contravened the development regulations propounded in the M aster P lan for P ort B lair P lanning A rea   – 2030 . Notified in D ecember   2011 , the M aster P lan for P ort B lair P lanning A rea (PBPA)   rightly observes that P ort B lai...

ANCOL – Will it be Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas, well the developments so far indicate No it’s Not! Never before in the history of Independent India has anyone given such a resounding and mature message of Unity with Inclusion unlike Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi did when he said : The only code of conduct of the Government should be “Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas” [Collective efforts inclusive growth]. The paradigm reverberated in the Honble LG’s address delivered on June 18, 2014 during laying the foundation for a Multipurpose Indoor Stadium at Knappuram village in Wimberly Gunj. Reiterating his commitment of commencing a new college from the academic session (2014-15), the LG said demand to establish Andaman College (ANCOL) in Bambooflat/Wimberly Gunj area is genuine as it will benefit many rural students. He did keep his commitment. Two schools namely : Govt Secondary Senior School (GSSS) Haddo Hindi Medium and GSS Haddo English Medium has been elbowed out/merged with a third ...

It is quite amazing that the two moon story (a hoax indeed) which first appeared in the summer of 2003 as an email, still manages to find space in the electronic as well as print media. The doctored image that is being used to spread  the rumor The hoax, which already had a long run, got a fresh lease of life when somebody, perhaps to play a prank, picked up the image from the Russian site Dream World’s gallery titled “fanciful double-moon images”  and shared it on the facebook on August 2013. Soon the image post went viral. How excited people are about it is reflected from the fact that when I started writing this blogpost, the doctored two moon image (reproduced on the left) on the facebook page garnered 855,568 shares. After 4 hrs when I finished writing, the number of facebook share rose to 859,599. That means 4031 facebook users shared the post in a matter of just 4 hours, which further mean that every minute, more than 16 facebook users are becoming part ...