An appeal to the visiting Honble Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways

At the outset I extend hearty welcome to Manyavar Nitin Gadkari jee, Hon’ble Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways. I am extremely delighted to know, starting 14 February, 2015 your goodself is going to spare four valuable days reviewing functioning of various departments and projects being undertaken for development of these islands. Sir, since your goodself is holding the Shipping portfolio, and that you chose to address a public meeting at Bambooflat, I consider it worth appraising your goodself about a couple of key issues concerning a large section of rural South Andaman and seek settlement of those long pending issues with your kind intervention.
MV Afra Bay and MV Karmatang, two Roll on/off ferries commissioned
on January 27, 2009 to cater to the commuting needs of the islands
failed to operate due to faulty mechanism/design etc.

Sir, as the news of your visit to the Andaman and Nicobar islands broke in the local media, among other things, ferry service between Bambooflat–Chatham saw a sea change. Most startling is appearance of MV Afrabay; one of the two Ro-Ro type vehicle ferries which were kept safely tethered in one or the other jetty since commissioning on 27 January 2009, all of a sudden the vessel is seen ferrying in the Bambooflat-Chatham route.

Sir, you would be surprised to know, according to an estimate every day around 12000 passengers, 900 two wheelers, 50 three wheeler, 75 four wheelers commute in the sea route between Bambooflat and Chatham on board DSS operated ferry. This is the largest movement of passenger and or vehicle in the whole of A&N Islands. Normally two vehicle ferries and one passenger ferry would be deployed in the route which is inadequate both in terms of capacity and frequency. Public has been repeatedly demanding additional deployment, but to no anvil. However consequent to your visit, three vehicle ferry and equal number of passenger ferries has been pressed into service giving commuters the respite they have been longing for.

It is no denying that Directorate of Shipping Services is trying their best, but such efforts could not yield desired result since single ramp jetties on either side is unable to support additional deployment of ferry. Keeping in view the rise in population of vehicles and passengers, one could conclude bridge/tunnel connectivity would become inevitable in the near future. However till such time permanent solution in the form of Bridge/Tunnel connectivity materialise, I appeal the Hon'ble Minister to kindly cause speeding up construction of  additional vehicle ferry ramp/berthing facility both at Chatham and Bambooflat jetty. It is also logical to appeal the Minister to kindly put in place suitable mechanism to ensure that that the number of vehicle and passenger ferry currently plying in the Bambooflat-Chatham route continue to ply long after the Ministers' departure from these islands.
M/S ATI Ltd in its hey day was the driver of economy providing livelihood 
directly to a large chunk of population from the rural South Andaman.
The factory shut down during October 2000 due to non-availability of logs.

Secondly I would like to appraise your honour about the plight of about 900 workers of the erstwhile M/S Andaman Timber Industries (ATI) whose retirement and other statutory dues has not been fully paid since the factory closed in October 2000. At the instance of the then Member of Parliament (Shri Bishnu Pada Ray), the then Honble Lt Governor convened a meeting at Raj Nivas on 08/09/2001 between the ATI Management, Workers representatives in the presence of senior officials of A&N Administration wherein the factory management agreed to clear workers retirement dues on or before 31/03/2002. Despite lapse of more than a decade, the fact remains that workers dues are yet to be settled. Every time the issue is raised, pending court case is being cited.
A portion of the landed property of M/S ATI Ltd Bambooflat acquired
for development of Port Related Facilities.

Sir, since your goodself holds the Shipping portfolio and the case that is being cited pertains to acquisition of ATI’s landed property for development of Port Related Facilities by Port Management Board, I feel your intervention could help resolve the deadlock that has been blocking settlement of retirement dues of over 900 employees for the last more than 14 years as of now.

It will not be out of place to mention that the Honble Supreme Court in its order dated 28 Nov, 2013 directed the Collector of Land Acquisition, A&N Administration to acquire the remaining land of M/S ATI Ltd and pay compensation to M/S Andaman Timber Industries within four months. Had the direction of the Apex Court been acted upon, workers dues would have been settled by this time. But to the utter dismay of the workers, Collector of Land Acquisition, A&N Administration filed for a review, sending those 900 workers to suffer another spell of agonising wait.

Estranged workers now see a ray of hope in the new Government at the centre which in the Vodafone transfer pricing case decided not to appeal against the Bombay High Court Order. Taking a cue from the above decision of the union cabinet, I appeal the Hon’ble Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways to cause the appellants in the instant case to consider settling the review petition at the earliest since outcome of the case has un-necessarily been linked to settlement of retirement dues in respect of about 900 workers, who are not even party to the litigation.

 I sincerely hope the visiting Hon'ble Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways Shri Nitin Gadkari jee would spare some of his valuable time delving on the issues brought to his notice and cause settlement of those issues in the interest of the residents of these islands.

Related Reading:


The post was carried in the Port Blair of Echo of India dated 16/02/2015 and featured in the website of portwings.in

Comments

bt change password said…
Very informative and useful post and thanks for share.
March 4, 2015 at 1:21 PM
Debkumar Bhadra said…
Thanks for the appreciation.
June 18, 2015 at 7:23 PM
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