VOL: 03 I ISSUE NO: 27 I REG NO:ANDENG/2011/38184 I 03 FEBRUARY 2014 I MONDAY I Rs. 2.00 I DAILY I PORT BLAIR I www.andamansheekha.com

PRINCE STORE

Salvage operation of killerferry ‘Aqua Marine’ begins

Port Blair, Feb 02: Andamanand Nicobar Police todaystarted the Salvage Operationof tourist ferry, MV AquaMarine, which capsizednearly North Bay Island ofAndaman killing 22 touristson 26 January 2014.

Highly placedsources today told‘Andaman Sheekha’ that the

tourist ferry which was lyingon the sea bed, more than 20mtrs below the surface, wasdragged underwater, by aprivate boat up to the SeaShore area Marine.

Entire Operationwas carried out with the helpof Navy divers, undersupervision of senior policeofficers onboard MV Trak thisafternoon. “The ferry MVAqua Marine is a case

Mohammed SajidSheekha News Service

(See page 2)

Murder at Teressa;five arrested

Teressa, Feb 02: According toreports available here withAndaman Sheekha, A & NPolice have arrested fourpersons for killing one oftheir friend at Teressa Island.According to detailsavailable here on 28 Jan aperson namely Krishna Rao,have been evacuated to PortBlair from Teressa Islandwith grievous injuries.However, Krishna Raosuccumbed to his injuries on01 February. After inquiry it

was learnt that the deceasedwas beaten up by somepeople at Teressa Island, whowere known to him.

The police team atPort Blair reportedly calledone of those persons at PortBlair from Teressa byhelicopter for interrogationafter which he was arrestedhere while four others havebeen arrested at TeressaIsland.

As the SP, Nicobardistrict is on leave and the SPin-charge’s phone is out ofreach, an official commentcould not be obtained.

Sheekha BureauSheekha News Service

ANDAMAN SHEEKHA INVESTIGATESWhy no action against senior government officials yet??

MV Aqua Marine Accident;Perhaps a CBI inquiry will

reveal the Actual StoryPort Blair, Feb 02: Continuinginvestigation in the MV AquaMarine capsize case,Andaman Sheekha teamtraced out a person who isclosely linked with privateferry business and knew theowner of MV Aqua Marinevery closely.

The persons “Ajay”(name changed) had alsoclosely dealt with all thetourists onboard MV AquaMarine on 26 Jan afternoonand sadly also seen deadbodies of all 21 dead touristsat night.

“For next three daysI had high fever. Since thatevening I could not sleep evenfor 10 minutes. I can’t forgetthose faces and those deadbodies, many of which Ipicked up myself,” he said.

Ajay is still in a stateof deep shock, his parents inmainland have now sentVermillion Powder from someTemples in Tamil Nadu, sothat he recovers speedily.

Talking to AndamanSheekha Ajay revealed thathow these small ferries passSurvey and all fitness tests.

“There are around 32such tourist boats, operatingin these Islands and hardly

Bureau ReportSheekha News Service

20 such boats have a propercertificate holder Master.There are cases wheremultiple permits have beenissued against one Master.Can one master operate twoboats together? No. This iswhere helpers are used asMasters and they are paid ameager salary of Rs. 4,000 toRs. 5,000. Can’t theAdministration understandthis?” Ajay reveals the majorflaw in present system.

According to himShekaran, the owner of MVAqua Marine owns three

such boats. While MV AquaMarine is surveyed in thename of Shekaran himself,two other boats are MV Jayaand MV Prabhu is surveyedin the name of Birsu, asMaster.

Ajay who is in thisfield since last many yearstold Andaman Sheekha thatduring survey of any ferryboat the equipments arepooled between various boats.

“As there is nomarking of any boat in any ofthe life jacket or life saving

(See page 7)

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Viper Prison BreakN. Francis Xavier

Part XXI , (Continuedfrom last week)

Long Island offered a goodrest for the tired fugitives.They repaired and replen-ished the boat, preparing forthe long journey ahead. Asplanned earlier the next stopwould be Aves Island, at themouth of Mayabunder. Theywould be safe from the pry-ing eyes of the aboriginalspies of MV Portman there.

They started wellbefore daybreak. Pushing theboat into the deep waters they

hoisted sail. They should coveras much distance as possiblebefore dawn to avoid beingspotted.

With a favourablewind and billowing sails theywere running free in a gentlesea. The hand lines thrownastern brought in a good catchof barracuda and king fish.With their bellies full and ef-fortless sailing the men forgotthe sad story of Nobin thatHemraj told them the previousday. They were drawingcloser and closer to their finaldestination. But the thought ofleaving the beautifulislandsalso filled them withsadness.

The sheer beauty ofthe Islands worked as a balmto sooth the tortures of thecruel prison system of theAndamans. Except for thosein the Chain Gang and solitaryconfinement life was comfort-able for the convicts. Theygot good food, medical facili-

ties and hope of settling downin the islands.

A huge white-belliedsea eagle soared high abovethe boat, circling as if tryingto figure out if it would fit intoits talons.

For the men it was agood omen. They watchedthe eagles every day, and en-vied their freedom. Theywatched them swoop downnear Aberdeen beach withoutstretched talons and snap

up the fish close to the shore.The ease with which they flewfor long hours without asmuch as flapping a wing filledthem with wonder. How theywished they too had wingslike them so that they couldfly away from this hell onearth!

By noon Aves Islandwas visible on the horizon.They were retracing theirearlierroute but avoiding theislands inhabited by the ab-

origines. “I must go toBombay but I’m really scaredof going there”, Bisheswarsuddenly said, “not after whatI saw there in 1857”.

“What did you see?Please tell us”, all the menasked in unison.

“Hey Debideen, takethe tiller”, Bisheswar said,moving to a more comfortableposition in the stern. He lit hispipe, took long drag andstarted his story.

“During September1857 I went to Bombay to joinas a recruit in the BombayMarine. The East India Com-pany was recruiting marinesto man their growing numberof warships. I was selected.We started training immedi-ately. Our drill instructor wasa Havildar of the Marine Bat-talion named Syed Hussain.As instructor he was verypopular with the troops hetrained. He was a devout

(See page 7)

Salvage operation...property of Andaman andNicobar Police now hence weneed to salvage it forinvestigation.

We have brought itvery close to the shore, nearly50 mtrs till evening andtomorrow early morningduring high tide, the ferrywill be salvaged,” a seniorPolice officer told ‘AndamanSheekha’, who does notwant his name to be quoted.

The Ferry was lyingon the seabed of the channel,which is the entry path ofPort Blair port.

“Even in low tide thedept remains 16 mtrs andhence it did not pose any

(From page 1)threat to other ship enteringor coming out of Port Blairport but still for case purposethe Ferry is being salvaged,”sources said.

Investigators are yetto confirm the actual reasonbehind the capsizing of theferry, although eye witnessesand survivors stress that thereason behind this isflooding of engine room, dueto some leakages.

Once salvaged, theferry will also confirmwhether the ferry was havingnearly 50 life jacketsonboard, as claimed by theowners and theAdministration.

(See page 7)

DMK Rajya Sabha MPKanimozhi hospitalizedCHENNAI: DMK RajyaSabha MP and daughter ofparty chief M Karunanidhi,Kanimozhi was on Saturdayadmitted to a private hospitalhere, sources close to hersaid.

“She has giddinessand uneasiness since she didnot sleep well last night,” theysaid. A medical bulletin re-leased by Kauvery Hospitalsaid, “She is undergoing treat-ment for tiredness and ex-haustion, with intravenousfluid therapy. She has beenadvised complete rest for thenext few days.”

Kanimozhi, who wasadmitted this morning, was re-covering well and would be

discharged soon, it added.DMK chief

Karunanidhi visitedKanimozhi (46) in theevening.

Lt. Governor inaugurates Bharat Nirman PIC at Kamorta

Administration making all effortsto fulfill aspirations of the citizens

Kamorta, Feb 2: The Lt.Governor, Lt. Gen. (Retd.) AK Singh inaugurated theBharat Nirman PublicInformation Campaign aschief guest at a function heldin the Hockey GroundKamorta here today. TheFirst Lady of the Islands, Smt.Suneeti Singh and seniormost lady of Nancowry,Rani Fathima also graced theoccasion. The Campaign, aflagship programme of theGovernment is beingorganised by the Ministry ofInformation andBroadcasting, in associationwith the A & NAdministration and Central

Media Unit.Speaking on the

occasion, the Lt. Governorsaid, Bharat Nirman PIC is a

platform to create awarenessamong the people about thevarious welfare oriented

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Kuldeep demands removal of pay anomalyand creation of various posts under DoE

Port Blair, Feb 02: PCC Presi-dent Kuldeep Rai Sharma inhis recent meeting with theUnion Home Minister MrSushil Kumar Shinde hastaken up the matter relatingto Director of Education also.

He has earnestly re-quested for consideration ofremoval of pay anomaly/grantof higher grade pay in respectof Head Master (Primary andMiddle schools) and othermiscellaneous teachers. Hehas submitted that Head Mas-ter (Primary & MiddleSchool) and various othermiscellaneous teachers viz.Physical Education Teachers,Craft Instructors, Librarian,Assistant Director (PE),Deputy Director (Adult edu-cation), Lecturer (SIE),Deputy Education Officeretc. of the Directorate of Edu-cation, A&N Administrationare mentally and financiallysuffering due to anomaly intheir Grade Pay after revisionof salary due to implementa-tion of 6th Pay Central Com-mission recommendation.

Before introductionof 6th Pay Commission,these miscellaneous teacherswere getting the pay equiva-lent to Graduate TrainedTeacher (GTT) but after in-troduction of 6th Pay Com-

mission, their pay grade hasbeen fixed at par with thePrimary School Teachersand requested that Ministryof Home Affairs being thenodal Ministry in respect theUT Administration of A&NIslands may bestow personalattention and get the proposalsubmitted by the A&N Ad-ministration for removal ofpay anomaly be approved atan early date.

Kuldeep has alsosubmitted that the Andamanand Nicobar Administrationhas sent a proposal on 30thApril, 2011 to the concernedMinistry for creation of 193posts of various categoriesviz. Principal -10 Posts, Vice

Principal-10 Posts, PGT-105Posts , GTT-51 Posts, HeadMaster(S)- 04 Posts, HeadMaster (M)- 05 Posts, HeadMaster (P)- 01 Posts, PET-01 Posts, CI- 03 Posts, LGC-01 Posts, PCC- 01 Posts andSCM- 01 Posts under the Di-rectorate of Education. It willbe very kind of the UnionHome Minister if the pro-posal for creation of postssubmitted by the A&N Ad-ministration gets approved atan early date with the assis-tance of your good Ministryas many schools are waitingfor up-gradation at variouslevel viz. Primary to Second-ary and Secondary to Sr Sec-ondary levels..

Early Cancer DetectionCamp by DHS and AIMS

Port Blair, Feb 02: Director ofHealth Services, A&N Ad-ministration in associationwith Amrita Institute of Medi-cal Sciences (AIMS), Kochi,Kerala will organize EarlyCancer Detection Camp atvarious places.

At BJR Hospital,Car Nicobar ECDC will beorganized on 12th February2014; at PHC Campbell Bayon 13th February 2014 and atG.B. Pant Hospital on 14th &15th February 2014.

The team of visiting

Oncologist from Amrita Insti-tute of Medical Sciences,Kochi, which include Dr.Subramanium Iyer (Head andNeck Oncology), Dr.Vijayakumar D.K. (SurgicalOncology-gynec Oncology)and Dr. Dinesh M (RadiationOncology), will examine thecases. The needy patientsmay register their name be-fore 11th February 2014 foravailing the services of SuperSpecialist at nearest EarlyCancer Detection Camps(Health Institutions).

Port Blair, Feb 02: As a partof 37th Coast Guard Anniver-sary celebrations, a receptionwas hosted by Inspector Gen-eral VSR Murthy, PTM, TM,Commander Coast GuardRegion (A&N) on 01 Feb2014 at 1930 hrs at CoastGuard Ship Support Complex.

The Lt Governor LtGen (Retd) AK Singh, PVSM,AVSM, SM, VSM and MrsSuneeti Singh, the first lady ofthe Islands graced the occa-sion as the Chief Guest. Thedignitaries from the Civil andMilitary establishments includ-ing the Commander-in-ChiefAndaman & Nicobar Com-mand Air Marshal PK Roy,PVSM, AVSM, VM, VSM,ADC, Chief Secretary ShriAnand Prakash, Shri SudhirYadav, DGP and Dr ShashiKumar, PCCF were present.

The event com-menced with traditional cakecutting ceremony, where inIG Murthy was assisted by

Coast Guard 37thAnniversary Celebrations

the junior most Coast Guardofficer, Asst Comdt UpasnaKaushik to do the honours inpresence of Lt Governor anddistinguished guests.

The ‘Taut Ship Tro-phy’ for overall excellence inoperations/administration andnewly instituted ‘Most Spir-ited Ship Trophy’ for all roundperformance for the CG shipsbased at A&N Region wereawarded to ICGS DurgabaiDeshmukh and ICGS ArunaAsaf Ali respectively by theLt Governor.

A short film andglimpses on activities show-casing the CG prowess andvarious Regional activities,and also a colourful culturalprogramme added glitter tothe ceremony.

Speaking on the oc-casion, the Chief Guest LtGovernor complementedCoast Guard for amply dem-onstrating its ability to re-spond swiftly and decisivelyto any challenging situationsof SAR and Disaster Relief

The members of Parliamentary Committee on Petition(Rajya Sabha) led by its Chairman, Shri Palavi GovardhanReddy call on the Lt Governor, Lt Gen (Retd) A K Singh,PVSM, AVSM, SM, VSM at Raj Niwas on 01-02-2014.

(See page 4)

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03.02.2014 Daily Issue::27

EDITORIAL.....Three faces of power

As the 2014 general electionsdraw near, the Indian public isgetting a view of three newfaces of power - of RahulGandhi, Narendra Modi andArvind Kejriwal. The first twohave been in politics for manyyears and are not altogethernew. But they are new to thenational stage at the highestlevel, and both are now firmlyimplanted in the public`s mind asprime ministers-in-waiting. Thethird is new to politics but hasalready made an impact nation-ally. While few would regard himas prime minister material, he ismaking a difference to nationalpolitical calculations already.

Rahul finally revealedhimself more fully in a long tele-vision interview earlier thisweek, but his earlier public ap-pearances and statements gaveIndians a fairly clear picture ofthe man. What kind of leader ishe? He is an example of "thepower of not seeking power".Indian political culture is quiteimpressed, traditionally, with theperson who turns his back onpower and who abdicates or re-treats from positions of power.

This rejection of powerhas something to do with deeperbeliefs about other worldlinessand the sordid nature of daily ex-istence. It can generate power.By refusing power, the leadertranscends the mundane. Heseemingly rejects the possibilityof personal gain and therebydraws others to him. MahatmaGandhi is probably the most fa-mous exemplar of this kind ofpower, but Sonia Gandhi, by re-fusing the prime ministership ofIndia, and Anna Hazare who ledthe Lokpal agitation and then re-treated to his village, are morerecent examples of self-abne-gating dispositions towardspower.

Modi has spent the lastyear disclosing quite anotherface of power, indeed quite theobverse face: he relentlessly, de-liciously, seeks power and all itslevers. Watching Modi on tele-vision is to watch someone whois in love with power, who is atease with it and who wants tobe prime minister of India morethan anything in the world.

There is cer tainly astream of Indian culture that re-gards the cultivation and ruthless

use of power in the service of so-cial stability and welfare as per-fectly legitimate, indeed necessary.This raison d'etat justification ofpower finds its most secular andexplicit expression in Kautilya'sArthashastra which suggests thatif you don't actively seek power,you lose power.

As against Rahul's mad-deningly philosophical discourse ongovernance in evidence in his tele-vision interview, Modi is as earthyand prosaic as it gets in public. Hispronouncements are classical poli-ticking - rubbishing opponents,boasting about his accomplishmentsand strengths (including his 56-inchchest!), and lacing his remarks withself-serving stories and illustrations,personal as well as political.

A third face of power isKejriwal's. In contrast to Anna,Kejriwal always wanted politicalpower - at least in retrospect thatis clear enough. Behind that aamadmi muffler is a shrewd, calculat-ing, ambitious and somewhat para-noid mind. Kejriwal typifies thetaxman's approach to social life, fullof suspicion and doubt and a deepdesire to fix those who are tryingto evade the law and their respon-sibilities.

This is also the ordinaryman's view of collective existence,which is a deeply conspiratorialone: that there are privileged peoplewho manipulate the laws and pro-cedures to get rich and to escapepunishment. The conspiratorial,hyper-suspicious view of social life,too, is a deeply Indian political idiom:everyone is self-interested and cor-rupt, and immorality abounds. Un-fortunately, there is enough truth tomake this face of power an attrac-tive one. Clearly, today, many Indi-ans want a leader who will tirelesslyand implacably go after the venaland dishonest.

Congress has been led bythree people ambivalent aboutpower: Rahul, Sonia andManmohan. Not surprisingly, wehave seen the rise of Modi, reflect-ing the frustration of the Indian pub-lic with a weak and flounderingCongress. It has presided over ram-pant corruption; not surprisingly, wehave Kejriwal. Rahul needs to likepower more and philosophy less.Modi will have to learn that an un-remitting love of power can be dan-gerous. And Kejriwal is finding outthat the power of paranoia and sus-picion is not enough.

in tune with its motto “VAYAMRAKSHAMAH”, it means “WEPROTECT”. LG also enlightened the

audience on the importance of Rais-ing Day and its relevance to the tra-dition of Armed Forces.

Coast Guard..... (From page 3)

CPI(M) mourns deathPort Blair, Feb 02: The Commu-nist par ty of India (Marxist),Andaman & Nicobar State orga-nizing committee expressed itsdeep sorrow on passing away ofcomrade S.B. Chartterjee, State

Organizing committee member pfthe party on 30th January 2014 athis Kolkata residence. He wasVice- President of NGOA beforejoining the party and he was 72years old.

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Zero gravity in space mayimpact astronauts' immunity

Washington: The clue to astronauts'immunity in outer space owing to pro-longed travel lies in learning the nega-tive impact of zero gravity on fruitflies.

A team of researchers fromthe University of California at Davisand the University of Central Florida(UCF) has studied the impact weight-lessness has on fruit flies bred inspace. "Our study showed that a bio-chemical pathway needed to fight fun-gal infections is seriously compro-mised in the flies after space flight,"said Laurence Von Kalm, a UCF bi-ologist.

"More work would be neededto determine if similar effects occurin humans but this gives us some im-portant clues," he added. Fruit flies'innate immune system is similar to thatof humans and other mammals and isoften used as a model in basic stud-ies. The research team, led by UC

Davis biologist Deborah Kimbrell, bredflies in space aboard Space ShuttleDiscovery in 2006.

The flies developed into adultswhile on the 12-day mission. The flieswere retrieved after the mission andresearchers found that they weremore apt to get fungal infections. Fur-ther analysis revealed that the systemthe flies use for detecting and defend-ing against fungal infection was deac-tivated. In contrast, another systemused to defend against bacterial infec-tion was not impaired in the space flies.

The team hopes to carry outresearch with fruit flies on the Inter-national Space Station (ISS).

"Getting a better understand-ing is particularly important, especiallyas we look to engage in long-term mis-sions such as interplanetary spaceflights," added Kalm.

The findings were publishedin the journal PLOS One.

Detailed look at HIV in action inside the gutientists have for the first time lookedat HIV infection within the actual tis-sue of an infectedorganism.esearchers at the Califor-nia Institute of Technology (Caltech)utilised high-resolution electron mi-croscopy to achieve what may be themost detailed characterisation yet ofHIV infection in the gut.

"Looking at a real infectionwithin real tissue is a big advance,"said Mark Ladinsky, lead author ofthe paper."With something like HIV,it's usually very difficult and danger-ous to do because the virus is an in-fectious agent. We used an animalmodel implanted with human tissueso we can study the actual virus un-der, essentially, its normal circum-stances," said Ladinsky.Ladinskyworked with Pamela Bjorkman, MaxDelbruck Professor of Biology atCaltech, to take three-dimensionalimages of normal cells along withHIV-infected tissues from the gut ofa mouse model engineered to have ahuman immune system.

The team used a techniquecalled electron tomography, in whicha tissue sample is embedded in plas-tic and placed under a high-poweredmicroscope.Then the sample is tiltedincrementally through a course of 120degrees, and pictures are taken of itat one-degree intervals.

All of the images are thenvery carefully aligned with one an-other and, through a process called

back projection, turned into a 3-D re-construction that allows differentplaces within the volume to beviewed one pixel at a time.

"Most prior electron micros-copy studies of HIV have focusedon the virus itself or on infection oflaboratory-grown cell cultures," saidBjorkman, who is also an investiga-tor with the Howard Hughes Medi-cal Institute."Ours is the first majorelectron microscopy study to look atHIV interacting with other cells in theactual gut tissue of an infected ani-mal model," said Bjorkman.By pro-curing such detailed images, re-searchers were able to confirm sev-eral observations of HIV made inprior, in vitro studies, including thestructure and behaviour of the virusas it buds off of infected cells andmoves into the surrounding tissueand structural details of HIV buddingfrom cells within an infected tissue.

LOST

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Delhi beats Beijing tobecome world's most pollutedcity: How does your city fare?

India's capital, Delhi, mayhave surpassed Beijing to be-come the city with the worstair pollution in the world.

In "Delhi world'smost polluted city: Study" pub-lished Jan. 29, HindustanTimes, one of India's highestcirculated daily newspapers,cited the latest Environmen-tal Performance Index (EPI)report by U.S.-based Yale andColumbia universities to sub-stantiate claims of India over-taking China in the hierarchallist of cities with the worst airpollution. Delhi and Beijingwere followed by Cairo,Santiago and Mexico City.

"The study describedIndia's air pollution as theworst in the world, tying withChina in terms of the propor-tion of population exposed toaverage air pollution levelsexceeding World Health

Organisation (WHO) thresh-olds," the article read.EPIproject director Angel Hsu ofthe Yale Center for Environ-mental Law and Policy, how-ever, said that the EPI re-search does not compare cit-ies and focuses only on na-tionwide pollution."The EPIdoes not rank cities, nor do thedata in the EPI provide anyinformation on city-level per-formance," Hsu said. "Beijingreports [pollution] data on anhourly basis over a publiclyaccessible platform. Delhi'sreporting is not as consistentor transparent, making directcomparison impossible. Delhimay or may not have dirtierair than Beijing, but it is clearlybehind in how it makes airquality information availableto its citizens."Although theair quality comparison be-tween Beijing and Delhi is

speculative, it is undeniablethat Delhi has pollution prob-lems. Research from India'sCenter for Science and Envi-ronment (CSE) showed thatDelhi's PM 2.5, which refersto the toxic pollutants that canenter a person's lungs andcause severe health problemssuch as lung cancer, has hit575 micrograms per cubicmeter while the permissiblelimit is only 60 m/cum.

"While it is true thata comparison doesn't takeinto account the unique issuesfacing the two cities, it alsoremains true that Delhi hasbeen very lackadaisical in itsattitude towards air pollution,"Anumita Roychowdhury ofCSE said. "China has beenmuch more stringent and itshows, their air pollution lev-els are lowering while oursare rising."

India to buy NASA aircraftfor cyclone prediction

NEW DELHI, FEB 2: Hit by fivecyclones on its eastern coast lastyear, India plans to procure a NASAaircraft equipped with a lab to studywind patterns at high altitude forbetter prediction of suchcalamities.“We are procuringMcDonnell Douglas DC-8 aircraftfrom NASA and we should hope-fully get it by 2015-2016. This air-craft has a laboratory within itselfand will be helpful in studying windpatterns,” Ministry of Earth Science(MoES) Secretary Shailesh Nayaktold PTI.The government has alsotied up with University of Massa-chusetts, US, for research onweather patterns in the country es-pecially in the Bay of Bengal, hesaid.“The aircraft will help in gath-ering data at high altitudes, especiallythe wind patterns, and to conductexperiments in the aircraft itself,” ascientist at MoES said.This assumessignificance as several cyclones, in-cluding the powerful Phailin that lefta trail of destruction, had hit thecountry’s eastern coast lastyear.Indian Meteorological Depart-

ment chief Laxman Singh Rathorehad last month said five cyclonesincluding Phailin and Helen had origi-nated in the Bay of Bengal.A seniorscientist from the MoES said thatwind is a major factor in determin-ing the atmosphere and despite pre-dictions of cyclones, it was neces-sary to study wind patterns indepth.“We know why cyclones takeplace and the formation process, butit was also important to understandwhy so many cyclones were hittingthe eastern coast,” the scientistsaid.NASA uses the DC-8 aircraftas a flying science laboratory. Theplatform aircraft, based at NASA’sDryden Flight Research Center inCalifornia, collects data for severalexperiments in support of scientificprojects.

Data gathered by the air-craft and by remote sensing havebeen used for studies in archaeol-ogy, ecology, geography, hydrology,meteorology, oceanography, volca-nology, atmospheric chemistry,cryospheric science, soil science andbiology.

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Muslim. Another man,MangalGuddrea, who was aprivate in the 10th Regimentof the Native Infantry garri-soned in Bombay also usedcome to the barracks. Hewas a devout Hindu.

“Both Hussain andMangal received news of theuprisings in various parts ofthe north and central Indiasince May that year. Theyalso learnt about the newrifle and the cartridges thatthreatened their faiths. Theyheld secret meetings and ex-horted the Marines that theytoo should rise against theBritish. The naval might ofthe British was gearing up torush supplies and arms totheir beleaguered compan-ions in Delhi, Kanpur,Lucknow, Meerut and manyother places. If the shippingis paralyzed it would help themutineers.

“The two men toldus how the British exploitedIndians for over two centu-ries to expand their empire.Indian sailors manned thefrigates of the Company eversince the formation of theRoyal Indian Navy in 1612.Indian sailors were recruitedas crew for the Indian Ma-rine, which later became theBombay Marine. Indiandockyards built the ships ofthe Royal Navy whichproved to be far better thanmany built in England. Royal

Viper Prison...Indian Navy ships manned byIndians helped consolidate theBritish Empire by attackingthe ships of the rival colonialpowers. They aided the armyin defeating Tipu Sultan, sup-pressed the piratical Joasmitribes in the action at Ras-el-Khaimaand embarked troopsto attack Rangoon in theAnglo-Burmese Wars and inthe siege of Multan during theAnglo-Sikh War. In return forall this what the Indian ma-rines received was racial dis-crimination and abuse fromtheir white officers.

“The two soldiersnarrated how a trooper of theBombay Lancers and manysepoys of the 12th BombayNative Infantry had been ex-ecuted at Nasirabad whenthey raised the banner of re-volt. Similar uprisings havebeen reported from otherparts of India also. Theycalled upon us to mutiny andtake control of the ships.

“At that t imeBombay had a Police Com-missioner named CharlesForjett. ‘Forjettsahib’ hadbecome a household word inBombay, celebrated for hisspectacular feats of detec-tion. He would wander thestreets of Bombay in dis-guise to gather information.To fur ther terrorize thepeople Forjett set up a gal-lows in the yard of the policestation. Anyone brought to

the police station was takenthere and shown what wouldbe their fate if they fomentedtrouble.

“The news of thesecret meetings reached theears of Forjett. One of hisdetectives, a Subedar, dis-covered that sepoys weregathering in the house of oneGanga Persaud in theSonapur area. Persaud,known as a priest and a phy-sician, catered to the spiritualand medical needs of thesepoys. Forjett immediatelyabducted him and extracteddetails of what was going onhis house.

After threateninghim with the gallows he madePersaud to conceal him in asmall room from where hecould watch the goings on inthe dark room. Through holesbored into the wall he listenedto the conversation of thesepoys. It was clear thatplans were being made foran uprising on 15th October,Diwali day. Forjett madefour more visits, bringingalong Maj. Barrow, the of-ficer commanding the army.Barrow identified his ownmen among the gathering:Syed Hussain andMangalGuddrea were tooconspicuous.

“I was young and afresh recruit. I didn’t under-stand much of what the twotold us. Luckily I was not in

the room when Forjett spiedon it. “Forjett acted fast. Thetwo were arrested. An ex-emplary punishment has tobe meted out to them to drivefear into the hearts ofBombayites. Only a mosthorrible public executioncould do that.

“On October 13,1857 Drill Havildar SyedHussein of the Marine Bat-ta lion and PrivateMangalGuddrea of the 10th

NI Regiment were court-martialed and sentenced todeath by being blown fromthe muzzle of acannon.Extensive arrange-ments were made for carry-ing out the execution onBombay Green.

“I, along with the sol-diers of the Marine Battalionand the 10th Native Infantry,to which the offending sol-diers belonged, were made tofall in to the right and left ofthe parade ground to watchthe execution.

“Guns of the RoyalArtillery from the Fort havebeen drawn up in a semicircleto the left of the formed upsoldiers. Four guns of theOrdnance Department,loaded with canister andgrapeshot were positioned infront of the soldiers. Threehundred white seamen fromthe ships in port, armed withmuskets and cutlasses weremade to fall in beside the

guns to protect them. “Atabout four O’clock the twocondemned men weremarched in their uniforms tothe parade ground from theircells in the Fort. Escorted bymen of the 95ththey marchedfearlessly and stood firm anderect. The guards strippedthem off their uniforms andlashed them to the muzzles ofthe guns. The signal wasgiven, and,in a moment, theground of Bombay Greenwas strewn with fragments oftheir bodies.

“I can never erasethat spectacle from my mind.I ran away from the barracksthat night. I was appre-hended within days as a de-serter and sent here. Myname is still in the policerecords. I’m told there’s an-other smart police officerthere now. He’s an Indian butvery much respected by theBritish for his detective work.It wouldn’t take him long toidentify me and send me backto Cadell Sahib.

“Well, that was notthe only place where sepoyswere blown from the mouthof a gun. Anyway, avoidBombay. We should not godirectly to our home towns.You should bear that in mind.Haul down the sails and shipyour oars now. We’re aboutto land on Aves Island”,Hemraj said. (To becontinued….)

(From page 2)

(From page 2)

(See page 8)

equipment, life jackets andother equipments of oneferry boat is shifted to theboat, under survey, and theofficials clear the survey ofthe boat, even after knowingthe truth. In most of the casesboat masters are asked justto take a short turn and theyclear all papers. Why noaction has been takenagainst those officers yet?The Administration hasarrested four people but whyno one from the side ofAdministration has beenput under suspension yet?Is this justice,” he questions.

According to Ajaythe helper of MV AquaMarina, Ranga had left jobjust three days back andNarottam joined the boat onthe same day as substitute.

“Prabhu is a not amaster and Narottam is anew guy then how can theycontrol such situation?Prabhu should have takenthe boat towards the rocks,which could have saved alllives. Boats need a lot oft ime to sink. It is only

because of panic touristscame in one side and theboat tilted. This happenedbecause of the inexperiencedcrew,” he added.

This interviewpoints out how openly rulesare broken by a fewgovernment officials to clearthe survey of boats, whichdoes not have a full timemaster.

At least on thisground the Administrationmust take some stringentaction against those whosurvey these boats.

When theAdministration can arrestfour private people, why thesame Administrat ion isdelaying in taking actionagainst governmentservants?

There is anotherserious angle too. Each suchboats cost nearly Rs. 20Lakhs to Rs. 40 Lakhs.

There are somepeople, who came from poorfinancial background andnow own three, four or evenfive such boats. The

question is from where thesepeople get crores of rupees?Has any investigation beendone in this regard? Who arethe actual owners of theseboats? These questions willperhaps remain alwaysunanswered.

Andaman Sheekhastrongly believe that wronginformation is being given tothe Lt. Governor in this caseand actual picture is notpresented before him.

This is the reasonwhy only a MagisterialInquiry has been ordered,which will probably yieldnothing as some of the topofficers are far above thereach of Magisterial Inquiry.

Hence only aJudicial Inquiry or a CBIinquiry will reveal thecomplete truth.

In his maiden pressconference the Lt. Governorhad asked journalists thatwhat “truth” is.

Hope that thisMagisterial Inquiry does notkill the “truth” behind thisstory.

MV Aqua Marine.. (From page 1)programmes of theGovernment. He expressedthe hope that the three-daycampaign will undoubtedlyprovide vital information tothe people of Kamorta and itsadjoining areas.

The Lt. Governoralso stated that India isemerging as a powerfulnation and to achieve this,every citizen should get all thefacilities and the benefit ofwelfare schemes must reachthe unreached section. TheAdministration is making allout efforts in fulfilling theneeds of the people ofKamorta and Nancowrygroup of Islands too, hementioned.

Briefing about the illfated tourist boat capsizetragedy, the Lt. Governorsaid that no boat withoutsafety and securityequipments will be allowedto ply and an enforcement cellhas already been constitutedto look into this matter.

The Lt. Governorreleased the booklets ofBharat Nirman on theoccasion. Earlier, the Lt.

Governor was accorded atraditional warm welcome onhis arrival at Kamorta.

The Nodal Officer,Bharat Nirman, Shri A.Dhanasekaran presentedmemento to the Lt. Governor,the First Lady and otherdignitaries. He also gave anintroduction of theCampaign and said that theobjective of the campaignwas to provide informationabout various welfareschemes of GoI.

Earlier, the DeputyCommissioner, Nicobars, MsSakshi Mittal welcomed thechief guest and otherdignitaries. The vote ofthanks was proposed byShri Rasheed Yusouf,Secretary, Tribal Council,Nancowry.

The Lt. Governoralso visited Trinket Island.

Later in theafternoon, the Lt. Governorand the First Lady visited thestalls put up by variousdepartments andorganizations during theBharat Nirman. He was

LG inaugurates ..

Address: Roy Villa, INS Utkrosh Road, New Pahargaon, Garacharma Post Office- 744105, South Andaman. Ph: 09932082892. andaman.shikha@gmail.com, editor@andamansheekha.com

City Office: Andaman Sheekha, D & K City Building, Ground Floor, RGT Road, Port Blair. A & N Islands.

Edited, Published, Printed and Owned by Shri Sanjib Kumar Roy and Published from Roy Villa, INS Utkrosh Road, New Pahargaon,Garacharma Post Office- 744105,South Andaman, A & N Islands. Printed at Royal Printers, Bargat Line, South Andaman. Editor: Shri Sanjib Kumar Roy.

8 03.02.2014 Rs. 2.00 Andaman Sheekha Daily Port Blair

Kuldeep Demands positioningof Ambulift Service at Port Blair

Port Blair, Feb 02: ThePradesh Congress Commit-tee always keeps concernover the welfare measures ofthe people of all walks of life.This has been seen that whileshifting the serious patientsmanually, the patients get in-juries in many ways, accord-ingly the PCC PresidentKuldeep Rai Sharma hasagain taken up the issue ofpositioning of Ambulift ser-vices with the Lt Governorfor the welfare of thestretcher patients who needto shift to mainland for spe-cialized treatment. In his let-ter Kuldeep has drawn atten-tion of the Administrator to-wards manual process ofmoving a patient to thestretcher and from stretcherto airplane, which is incred-ibly injury-prone as movingmanually, the weight of thepatient is put on his ownclavicles.

Senior patients havebrittle bones which results infrequent clavicle fracturesduring the move. Patients

who have shunts installed,end up having the shunt bro-ken, resulting in bleeding.Patients who have pace-makers often experiencepacemaker malfunctionwhen being manually moved,due to excessive force ap-plied to the chest area. Butthe use of AmbuLift pre-vents this scenario.

When usingAmbuLift, a safe distancebetween EMT’s (emergencyMedical technicians) and thepatient is established sincethe patient does not have to

be manually lifted. Kuldeephas also stated in his letterthat Ambulift has many quali-ties viz reliability, durability,versatility and ease of useand low cost that makes itthe optimal solution formechanized patient transfersafely. Hence, forthe welfare of the stretcherpatient, Kuldeep has re-quested to consider introduc-ing Ambulift services at GBPHospital for safe lifting ofsuch patients, especiallyfor shifting them to mainlandby air.

(From page 7)

Navy warship runs aground off Visakhapatnam coastNEW DELHI: An amphibiouswarship of the Navy was dam-aged when it ran aground offthe coast of Visakhapatnamlast week, after which an in-quiry has been ordered to as-certain the reasons for the mis-hap. This was the eighth inci-dent involving a Naval warshipsince the sinking of the sub-marine INS Sindhurakshak inMumbai harbour in August lastyear in which all 18 personnelon board were killed. TheMagar-class Landing ShipTanker ran aground off thecoast of Visakhapatnam lastweek and suffered damages.

An inquiry has beenordered to probe the incidentby the Navy, sources in theNavy said. A Navy spokesper-

son refused to comment onthe issue. The LSTs are usedby the Navy for amphibiouswarfare. Only two ships of theclass were designed and builtby Hindustan Shipyard Lim-ited in partnership with theGarden Reach Shipbuildersand Engineers. The shipsare stationed at the naval basein Vishakhapatnam. They canoperate two medium-lift heli-copters, which are primarilymeant for “inserting” a smallteam of Special Forces (ma-rine commandos). There havebeen several incidents in therecent past soon after NavyChief Admiral DK Joshiclaimed that the force’srecord in terms of safety was“not that bad” when com-

pared to other navies in theworld. After the sinking of theINS Sindhurakshak, the Navyhas faced several mishaps in-cluding one in which the INSBetwa was damaged afterprobably hitting some under-water object. The INSSindhughosh, another KiloClass submarine, had a closeshave after it entered theMumbai harbour in a low tidephase.

India’s leading mine-sweeper, the INS Konkan thatwas undergoing repairs inVizag, caught fire and sufferedmajor damage to its interiors.The Pondicherry-class mine-sweeper was getting a refit ata dry dock when the incidentoccurred.

apprised about the progress,achievements and theongoing activities of theAdministration in thedevelopment process of theislands. As many as 23 stallshave been put up in theBharat Nirman PublicInformation Campaign ofwhich 20 are of differentdepartments and three of thetribals of Nancowrie such asTribal Council, Nancowrie,Sahara Women CooperativeSociety and Super Moms- thetaste of Nancowrie.

The Lt. Governorgave away prizes to the besttraditional fishermen whoperformed the best traditionalfishing demonstration. Healso gave away financialassistance of Rs. 50,000/- toa handicapped person ofRamchaw village, given byTribal DevelopmentCooperative Society.

A colourful culturalprogramme was alsoorganized showcasing the

traditional cultural activitiesof the Nancowrie tribal. Theseincluded Nicobarese folkdances, bamboo dance, a skiton witch doctor and stickfight.

A live musicalevening was presented by theartistes of Naach Academyled by Ms. Samhita VedaAcharya.

Meanwhile, in themorning, a Bharat NirmanPIC rally was held in whichthe tribals from differentislands of Chowra, Teressa,Champin and Kamortabesides school students andtribal leaders participated.

The rally wasflagged off by the DeputyCommissioner Nicobars, Ms.Sakshi Mittal. The rallystarted from Govt. ModelSecondary School Kamortaand went round the HeadQuarter Kamorta beforeculminating at Hockeyground, the venue of theBharat Nirman.

LG inaugurates ..