Serendipity : Musings of an Islander

Islanders caught as collateral in the lockdown By Debkumar Bhadra With less than a week remaining into the 21 day lockdown, everyone seems to wonder if the lockdown will be lifted or extended! Well for a diverse country of 1.3 billion, there cannot be a one-size-fits-all answer, specifically when the choice is between life and livelihood. On one hand there is a perceived risk of undoing the commendable job of containing the deadly novel corona virus, on the other it is the country’s economy that is at stake . While many states are already arguing for extending the lockdown, an update shared by the Chief Secretary to the UT Administration of Andaman and Nicobar has brought some respite. “All ten earlier positive cases are now negative after treatment. They will be shifted from hospital to institutional quarantine for 2 weeks” read the late night tweet by @ChetanSanghi. The islands which so far accounted for 11 corona positive cases, after ten of them declared neg...

Helmet compulsory for pillion riders: Necessarily an Un-necessary stipulation By DebkumarBhadra I cannot agree more that whenever a problem is brought to the notice of those at the helm, they don’t have to look anywhere or consult anyone. What they simply need to do is “jerk their knee” and dish out solution stunning everyone right from those at the lowest rung to the seasoned experts. No matter if the attempted solution proves to be far more calamitous than the problem itself, but they just do it. To give an idea of what I am trying to say, let me quote the example originated in an anecdote, set at the time of British rule of India which came to be known as cobra effect . Concerned about the presence of venomous cobra snakes in Delhi, the government of the day came up with a novel solution offering bounty for every dead cobra. Initially this was a successful strategy as large numbers of snakes were killed for the reward. H...

Open letter to His Excellency, The Hon’ble Lt Governor, A&N Islands Dear Sir Hon’ble Lt. Governor, Prof. Jagdish Mukhi called on  the Hon’ble Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Shri Nitin Gadkari at New Delhi on September 13, 2017 While your Excellency was busy meeting important functionaries of the Central Government at the National Capital, a good number of residents in the capital town of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, governed by your goodself were chased, lathi charged, hit by water cannons and tear gas shells fired at them, right in front of your official residence - Raj Nivas at Port Blair. Their only fault, they sought to appraise their own Lt Governor about the problems faced by them due to prolonged, scheduled, unscheduled electric power cuts and poor condition of roads in the islands.   Sir, during the past few months, the residents of South Andaman have been having a harrowing time dealing with scheduled and unscheduled load s...

Following is the text of letter submitted to the Deputy Commissioner South Andaman/Excise Officer (HQ) in response to the public notice inviting opinion on the proposed change in bar timings to curb consumption of liquor in A&N Islands. Dear Sir At the outset I would like to place on record my appreciation towards the Chairperson A&N S tate S ocial W elfare B oard for the concern and its effort in curbing consumption of alcohol in these islands by suggesting reduction in business hours for serving liquor in bars in these islands. I would also like to record my sincere gratitude towards the D eputy C ommissioner (S outh A ndaman )/E xcise O fficer (HQ) for putting out public notice through T he D aily T elegrams dated S aturday, N ovember 14, 2015 inviting opinion from the public on the issue. Before going into the issue, I consider it worth making it clear beforehand that I am in favour of the proposed change (reduction) in bar timings. I believe the p...