ePaper, Andaman Sheekha 22032014

VOL: 03 I ISSUE NO: 65 I REG NO: ANDENG/2011/38184 I 22 MARCH 2014 I SATURDAY I Rs. 2.00 I DAILY I PORT BLAIR I www.andamansheekha.com

ANC resumes MH370 search againTwo aircrafts sent to Kuala

Lumpur for search operation;Two ships in west coast

Port Blair, Mar 21: TheAndaman and Nicobar Tri-Service command today saidthat India is sending twomilitary aircrafts to KualaLumpur for the multi-nationsearch operation ofMalaysian Jet MH 370.

“One C 130J ofIndian Air Force stationed atPort Blair returned toMainland India today whilereplacement C130J left forKuala Lumpur at 1200 hrsfrom Port Blair,” a seniorMilitary Officer of Andamanand Nicobar Commandtoday told ‘AndamanSheekha’, who does not wanthis name to be quoted.

He said that IndianNavy’s Long Range MaritimeReconnaissance aircraft P8I

is also likely to fly for KualaLumpur from MainlandIndia.

“Two Indian Navyships from AndamanNicobar Command aresearching off west coast of

Andaman Group of Islandsfrom 0800 hrs today inconjunction with ships ofEaster Naval Command,” thesenior ANC officer added. Hesaid that one P8I aircraft of

Magnitude 6.5 earthquakestrikes off Nicobar Islands – USGS

Port Blair, Mar 21: A 6.7-magnitude earthquake struckoff Nicobar Islands on Friday,the U.S. Geological Surveyreported.

The quake was at adepth of 6.2 miles (10 km)about 68 miles (110 km)southeast of Misha, NicobarIslands, in the Indian Ocean,the agency said. An official

at the provincial disastermanagement control roomsaid there were no immediatereports of casualties ordamage but the earthquakehad been felt by islanders.

The official saidthere was no tsunami alert.Andaman and Nicobar ismade up of more than 500mostly uninhabited islands.

Andaman Sheekha MournsShri. Jagadish Mandal’s Death

Port Blair, Mar 21:Andaman Sheekha teamdeeply mourns the sad de-mise of Shri. JagadishMandal, father ofAndaman Sheekha corre-spondent Dr. P K Mandal(Trinath), Billyground. Hewas 82 years old and wasnot keeping well since along time.

Shri JagadishMandal, who came toAndaman and Nicobar Is-lands under RVD (RastriyaVikas Dal) Scheme, hadsettled at Billyground area.He had served the Rev-enue Department asChaudhury for more than35 years at Harinagararea. Shri Mandal waswell known for his kind be-

havior and helpful natureamong public of North andMiddle Andaman.

He is survived byhis wife Kalidasi Mandal,three sons Dr. P K Mandal,Dr. S K Mandal, Mr.Purnendu Mandal and threedaughters. His last right willbe performed tomorrow at11.00 am.

(See page 7)

Four injured in road accident at DollygunjMohammed Sajid

& Aditya LallSheekha News Service

Port Blair, Mar 21: Four peoplesustained minor injuries in aroad accident today, which

took place at Dollygunj ataround 3.00 PM. Accordingto eye witnesses four peoplein a Maruti Swift Dezire weregoing towards School Lineside from Dollygunj area infull speed. Eye witnesses say

(See page 8)

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Malaysia jet search: India declines China’s requestto enter waters around Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Port Blair, New Delhi, Mar21: India has declined China’sproposal to allow four of itswarships to join the hunt forthe MH370 jetliner near theAndaman and Nicobar ar-chipelago, even as it is nowdispatching two aircraft toMalaysia to join the interna-tional search force that isnow scanning southern In-dian Ocean off Australia forthe missing 777-200ER air-craft.

Officials on Thurs-day said China’s request toallow its four warships, in-cluding two frigates and asalvage vessel, to enter In-dian territorial waters hasbeen “politely turned down”since Indian warships andaircraft are already search-ing the Bay of Bengal andAndaman Sea around the572-island cluster.

While the Chinesewarships are free to sail ininternational waters, Indianforces will obviously be un-happy about their presenceanywhere near the strategi-cally-located Andaman andNicobar Islands. “The A&Ncommand is our military out-

post in the region, whichoverlooks the Malacca Straitand dominates the Six-De-gree Channel. We don’twant Chinese warshipssniffing around in the area onthe pretext of hunting for themissing jetliner or anti-piracypatrols,” said an official. An

Indian P-8I long-range mari-time reconnaissance planeand a C-130J special opera-tions aircraft, with electro-optic and infra-red sensors,meanwhile will fly to Malay-sia on Friday morning to jointhe international search force

(See page 7)

AAP expels two leadersfor demanding money

NEW DELHI: Sending out astrong message to party of-fice bearers, the Aam AadmiParty on Friday sacked twoleaders from Uttar Pradeshfor demanding money in ex-change of party tickets.

Addressing a pressconference at his Tilak Laneresidence, AAP National con-vener Arvind Kejriwal an-nounced sacking of Avadhzone convener Aruna Singhand Hardoi’s treasurer AshokKumar for demanding moneyin lieu of giving party ticketsfor Lok Sabha elections.

“These two de-manded money from pro-spective candidates in ex-change of party tickets. Wereceived complaints, follow-ing which we asked for evi-dence. When the par tylooked into the evidence, wefound the allegations to betrue.

“However, no kindof financial transaction oc-curred. Based on the evi-dence, we decided to sackthe two,” Kejriwal said.

A party leader saidone Rajesh Kumar fromSitapur had alleged thatmoney was being taken in

exchange of tickets, follow-ing which a sting was doneby a news channel.

“Initially, when thevoice record came to us, itwas not clear. So, we askedthe TV reporter to get freshevidence and verified it af-ter which an action wastaken against the two.” saidthe leader.

Kejriwal asked themedia and also the candi-dates looking for party tick-ets to conduct a sting opera-tion if they found anyone de-manding money.

“Whosoever doesthat, conduct a sting. We willverify it and the person willnot be in the party for morethan 24 hours after that,” hesaid.

Kejriwal added thatwhenever such cases comeup, the party looks for thevoice and raw footage beforearriving at any conclusion.

“I am sending out aclear message, whosoeverpaid money for the ticketshould assume that theirmoney will be wasted. Thecandidate will also not getany ticket if he does this,Kejriwal said.

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EVM handling trainingat District Office premises

Port Blair, Mar 21: A goodnumber of Presiding Officersand Polling Officers appointedfor conduct of General Elec-tion-2014 today acquaintedthemselves with handling ofElectronic Voting Machine(EVMs). The Master trainersdesignated at District Office,South Andaman impartedtraining to the officials abouthandling the EVMs on pollday. Apart from the officials,the general public also got anopportunity to operate theEVMs much to their satisfac-tion. It may be recalled herethat two training EVMsalong with Master trainershave been designated atDist r ic t Off ice, SouthAndaman (at the Transit

Pass issue Room at theGround Floor of DistrictOffice, South Andaman) toimpart training to PresidingOfficers and Polling Offic-ers who may be requiringadditional experience on

Port Blair, Mar 21: Four can-didates filed their nominationpapers today (March 21) be-fore the Returning Officer, A& N Islands ParliamentaryConstituency, Mr. P.Jawahar. Mr. Saravanan as

an Independent candidatefiled one nomination paperwhich was proposed by 10proposers.

Smt. Anita Mondalof All India Trinamool Con-gress filed four sets of nomi-

nation papers. Her candida-ture was proposed by 10proposers.

Mr. Bishnu PadaRay of Bharatiya JanataParty filed three sets ofnomination papers. His can-

Four more nominations filed; lastdate for filing of nominations today

didature was proposed by 3others.

Mr. Prakash Minj asan Independent candidatefiled two sets of nominationpapers which were proposedby 10 proposers.Tomorrow

(March 22) is the last datefor filing of nomination. Thescrutiny of nomination paperswill be done on March 24and the last date for with-drawal of candidature isMarch 26, 2014.

handling of EVMs on pollday. The Cell shall remainopen from 0900 hrs to 1700hrs with a break of one hourfrom 1300 hrs to 1400 hrs.All concerned can avail thisopportunity.

WWW.ANDAMANSHEEKHA.COM

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22.03.2014 Daily Issue::65

EDITORIAL.....

It’s absolutely untrue that benefits ofeconomic development have bypassedIndia’s largest minority

As the 2014 general electionsdraw close, all major political partieshave been vociferously showing theirconcern for Muslims and competing towoo the Muslim voter. Even BJP is try-ing to win them, using tokenism andstereotyped gestures. In the current mi-lieu, some myths about Muslims are incirculation.

One myth concerns their vot-ing behaviour. It assumes that Mus-lims are a homogenous community.They vote en bloc in favour of a party.A section of Muslims believes the com-munity vote brings Congress to power.A section of the majority communitytoo harbours this delusion.

The fact is that the IndianMuslim community is as diverse as In-dian society. Religion unites as muchas caste, sect, region and trade dividethem. These divisions make them fitinto the plural, diverse patterns of In-dian life.

A majority of Muslims live instates such as UP, Bihar, West Bengaland Kerala that have a strong presenceof regional parties. Congress figuresonly in the third or fourth position inthese states. In these states, a majorityof Muslims vote for regional parties. Instates such as Assam and AndhraPradesh, Muslim voting for Congresshas come down.

According to the Centre forthe Study of Developing Societies,more than 70% of Muslim votes go toCongress in states such as Rajasthan,Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Delhiwhere the contest is bipolar, betweenCongress and BJP.

In states where the contest ismultipolar and Congress is in numbertwo or three position, or the junior part-ner, Muslim votes for Congress comedown to 30%. A majority of Muslimvotes are fragmented and go to differ-ent political parties, reflecting their lo-cal and class interests. It is evident fromthis that no party can take the Muslimvote for granted.

In the 2014 parliamentary elec-tions, they are likely to vote for the best-placed candidate to defeat BJP nation-ally. In 2009, Muslim votes started tocome back to Congress in UP. Theyvoted for Samajwadi Party and BSPalso in almost equal proportions. Thereis a ray of hope for Congress in UP inthe post-Muzaffarnagar situation,where Muslims may largely vote forCongress and BSP.

AAP is a new phenomenonand Muslims are still sceptical. TheAAP agenda does not fully reflect theirhopes and fears. For Muslims, commu-nalism is a much bigger issue than cor-ruption.

There is another myth, largelyamong Muslims, that they have notbenefited from economic development.It is nobody’s argument that a lot hasbeen done for Muslims by succeedinggovernments. However, it is not thecase that nothing has been done forthem. Since Independence, the state’sapproach to the rights of religious mi-

norities has proved inadequate in pro-moting inclusion. Despite constitu-tional safeguards and stark backward-ness of the Muslim community, it hasbeen kept out of the purview of affir-mative action policies, except for a smallnumber of Muslims in the OBC cat-egory.

Their issues were limited toprotection of religious identity and se-curity. But over the last decade a no-ticeable shift has occurred in politicalthinking regarding minorities, and manypolicy initiatives have been taken toempower them. The Sachar Committeereport was one such landmark step.

In pre-Sachar days, talkingabout Muslims meant ‘appeasement’.Sachar gave an atmosphere in whichpluralism and diversity could be ac-ceptable socially and legally. In the wakeof Sachar’s recommendations, manywelfare programmes were started forMuslims, yielding substantial improve-ment in some areas.

As per latest data by HRDministry, enrolment of Muslim childrenat elementary level has risen to 13%from 8% in 2006-07. The refrain aboutno benefit having reached Muslims isobviously untrue.

As per government data, theflow of priority sector credit to minori-ties during 2012-13 reached Rs 1,71,960crore, which was more than 15% of to-tal priority sector lending.

Many studies found problemsin the delivery mechanism of minoritywelfare schemes during the 11th plan.In the 12th plan a focused strategy hasbeen adopted, making blocks insteadof districts the basic unit for planningand implementing these schemes. Nowthat an area-specific approach has beenadopted, benefits should go directly tominority-concentrated villages where asubstantial number of Muslims live.Bottlenecks are now being identifiedand the delivery system is beingstreamlined. Amid all this, nobody canhonestly claim that benefits of eco-nomic development have bypassedMuslims.

Finally, there is a misunder-standing among some people, mainlyMuslims, that preservation of secular-ism is the exclusive responsibility ofMuslims. This certainly is not the case.India is secular not because Muslimswant it to be so, but because this coun-try has evolved over millennia in a waythat religion and its practice have beenleft out of the domain of the state.

This is reflected in India’sConstitution. It is relevant to note thatEurope did not become secular to ac-commodate Jews, Muslims or Bud-dhists, but to protect people from sec-tarian strife within Christianity. US secu-larism has similar origins. India too issecular because of Hindus, not Mus-lims, Sikhs, Christians or Parsis.

Nehru’s idea of nationalismwas based on a shared historical pastand a future project of common devel-opment. This idea still holds good. It isa broad reflection of Congress think-ing and a tradition of accommodationand synthesis that stretches back to ahoary past.

Top myths about Muslims

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Doctors abort medico’s planned suicidalbid, incident finds space in medical journal

The 32-year-old post gradu-ate doctor, tried to commitsuicide by taking two cardiacdrugs to ensure definite car-diac arrest and a drug forbrain damage, a method thatonly a doctor could havethought of. However, he wassaved by doctors at the SirGanga Ram Hospital.

The medical studentused a unique and deadly con-coction as a method of sui-cide. The digoxin drug that heconsumed to kill himself is

used to control irregularheartbeats in patients but iftaken in large doses, it cancause a complete standstillleading to cardiac arrest.

According to doctorsat the hospital, the challengefor them was to find an anti-dote for the cardiac drug heconsumed which was specificto the antibody fragments,

A team of cardiolo-gists, nephrologists and criti-cal care specialists then at-tempted a charcoal-based

hemoperfusion used for re-moving drug related toxins butrarely attempted for digoxin.The new treatment surpris-ingly reduced the level of tox-ins in his body and saved thelife of the medicalprofessional.The report aboutthe suicide attempt by the 32-year-old postgraduate doctorand his subsequent treatmenthas been published in the lat-est issue of the Indian Jour-nal of Critical Care and Man-agement.

Tooth loss associatedwith depression and anxiety

Researchers have associatedtooth loss with depression andanxiety.In the study, researchers ex-amined a potential associationof tooth loss with depressionand anxiety.

The Behavioral RiskFactor Surveillance System(BRFSS) Survey is a com-plex, telephone survey of theCenters for Disease Controland Prevention and statehealth departments. In thisstudy, the researchers usedthe BRFSS 2010 data(451,075 respondents).

Analysis involvedfrequency, Chi square analy-sis, and complex survey logis-tic regression. Participantseligibility included being 19years or older, and havingcomplete data on depression,

anxiety and tooth loss.There were 76,292

eligible participants; and 13.4per cent of participants re-ported anxiety, 16.7 per centreported depression, and 5.7per cent reported total toothloss. The sample was evenlydistributed between malesand females; there were 68.7per cent non-Hispanic whites,12.7 per cent non-Hispanicblacks, 12.5 per cent Hispan-ics, and 6.8 per cent other.

In Chi-square analy-sis by tooth loss: depression,anxiety, and a combined cat-egory of depression or anxi-ety were significantly differ-ent in tooth loss (p less than0.0001) v. participants with-out the conditions. The unad-justed odds ratio for tooth lossand anxiety was 1.58 (95 per

cent CI: 1.46, 1.71; p less than0001); for depression: 1.64(95 per cent CI: 1.52, 1.77; pless than 0001); and for anxi-ety or depression as a com-bined category: 1.55 (95 percent CI: 1.44, 1.66; p less than0001).

The adjusted oddsratio (AOR) for anxiety was1.13 (95 per cent CI: 0.99,1.30; p=0.0773); for depres-sion: 1.16 (95 per cent CI:1.02, 1.32; p=0.0275); and ina separate analysis of thecombined anxiety or depres-sion category, the AOR was1.23 (95 per cent CI: 1.11,1.36).

At the conclusion ofthis national study, the re-searchers found that depres-sion and anxiety are associ-ated with tooth loss.

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The Earth’s zebraprint jacket:Nasa discovers new giant striped structure

in the planet’s radiation beltScientists discovered the new,persistent structure in one oftwo radiation belts surround-ing Earth. NASA’s twin VanAllen Probes spacecraft spot-ted the pattern, which thatresembles slanted zebrastripes. The structure is pro-duced by the slow rotation ofEarth, previously consideredincapable of affecting themotion of radiation belt par-ticles, which have velocities

approaching the speed oflight.

Scientists had previ-ously believed that increasedsolar wind activity was theprimary force behind anystructures in our planet’s ra-diation belts.However, thesezebra stripes were shown tobe visible even during lowsolar wind activity, whichprompted a new search forhow they were generated.

‘It is because of theunprecedented resolution ofour energetic particle ex-periment, RBSPICE, thatwe now understand that theinner belt electrons are, infact, always organized inzebra patterns,’ saidAleksandr Ukhorskiy, leadauthor of the paper at TheJohns Hopkins AppliedPhysics Laboratory, orAPL, in Laurel.

Titan's second largest seahas mirror-like smooth surface

Radar measurements madein 2013 by NASA'sCassini spacecraft, revealthat the surface of LigeiaMare, Titan's second larg-est sea, possesses a mir-ror-like smoothness, possi-bly due to a lack of winds.

"If you could lookout on this sea, it would bereally still. It would just bea totally glassy surface,"Howard Zebker, professorof geophysics and of elec-t r ica l engineer ing a tStanford who is the leadauthor of a new study de-tailing the research, said.

The findings alsoindicate that the solid ter-rain surrounding the sea islikely made of solid organicmaterials and not frozen

water. Sa turn's secondlargest moon, Titan has adense, planet-like atmo-sphere and la rge seasmade of methane andethane.

Measuring roughly260 miles (420 km) by 217miles (350 km), LigeiaMare is larger than LakeSuperior on Earth.

"Titan is the bestanalog that we have in thesolar system to a body likethe Earth because it is theonly other body that weknow of that has a com-plex cycle of solid, liquid,and gas cons t i tuents , "Zebker said.

T he r ada r mea -surements suggest the sur-face of Ligeia Mare is

eerily still."Cass ini ' s rada r

sensitivity in this experi-ment is one millimeter, sothat means if ther e a rewaves on Ligeia Mare,they're smaller than onemillimeter. That's really, re-ally smooth," Zebker said.

One possible ex-plana t ion for the sea 'scalmness is that no windshappened to be blowingacross that region of themoon when Cassini madeits flyby.

Another possibilityis that a thin layer of somemater ial is suppressingwave action.

The f indings a republished online in Geo-physical Research Letters.

there. The new region offAustralia is now oneveryone’s radar screens af-ter two objects, which couldbe debris from the missingMalaysian Airlines 777-200ER aircraft, were spottedfloating there by a satellite onThursday. “Indian Navy al-ready has four warships (INSSatpura, Sahyadari, Saryu andBatti Malv) deployed in theBay of Bengal and AndamanSea in continuation of thesearch for the jetliner. Exten-

(From page 2)

sive air searches are also be-ing conducted with three air-craft (P-8I, C-130J andDornier-228) in the area,”said an officer.

“In addition to all this,the P-8I and C-130J will bejoining the international forcein Malaysia by Friday after-noon. We are in continuoustouch with the Royal Malay-sian Navy and Air Force fromour maritime operations cen-tre at New Delhi to render allpossible help,” he added.

Malaysia jet...

Indian Navy, which isalready located at Port Blairis searching seas south ofGreat Nicobar Island andwest of Sumat ra.Meanwhile many countries

Two aircrafts...are already hunting forMalaysia Airlines FlightMH370 in the southernIndian Ocean, which hasnot yielded any result sofar.

(From page 1)

Bail denied to twoaccused in UP riot casesMUZAFFARNAGAR: The bailpleas of two accused in sepa-rate cases involving the riotslast year in the area has beenrejected by courts here.

Chief judicial magis-trate Narender Kumar rejectedthe bail plea of Subodh, an ac-cused in the Bahawdi killings,upon the prosecution’s conten-tion that he was facing chargesin several cases.

Three persons, in-cluding two women, werekilled by rioters at Bahawdi vil-lage in the district’s Phugana

police station area during theriots on September 8 last year.Meanwhile, a sessions courtrejected the bail plea of oneMuzammil in connection withthe Kawal killings case. Addi-tional district sessions JudgeJitender Kumar rejected the bailplea of the accused who hasbeen named in the case alongwith four others.

Two youths werebeaten to death at Kawal vil-lage on August 27, 2013, fol-lowing which communal ten-sions spread in the area.

Address: Roy Villa, INS Utkrosh Road, New Pahargaon, Garacharma Post Office- 744105, South Andaman. Ph: 09932082892. [email protected], [email protected]

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.

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NIOS students advisedPort Blair, Mar 21: The stu-dents of NIOS (Sec & Sr.Sec level) AI no.230001(Govt. Model Sr. Sec.School, Aberdeen) havebeen informed that theirtheory examination will beheld from March 24 to May5, 2014 at 2.30 pm onwards.Candidates who have remit-ted their examination fee forMarch/April 2014 have beenadvised to downloaded re-vised date of hall tickets/ex-

amination intimation lettersfrom the NIOS website(www.nios.ac.in). It is alsodisplayed on the notice boardof the school. For furtherenquiries, they can contactthe Incharge of the StudyCentre between 2 & 4 pm onall school working day. Cen-tre for theory exam for classX will be held at RBV andclass XII will be held atNirmala School, a communi-cation said.

Time table for exam displayedPort Blair, Mar 21: The stu-dents registered for the Inter-mediate Course of Cost andManagement AccountingCourse under the Institute ofCost & Management Ac-countants of India (ICMAI)Extension Counter/StudyCentre in JNRM have beeninformed that the time tablefor the June 2014 examina-tions has been displayed in theStudy Centre, JNRM. The

examinations are scheduledfrom June 11, 2014 onwards.The last date to apply for theexamination is March 31,2014 without late fee andApril 10 with late fee ofRs.300. All are advised tocontact the CMA CourseCoordinator (9434281546),Study Centre/ExtensionCounter in JNRM campusimmediately, a communica-tion received here said.

 CARI renamed as CIARIPort Blair, Mar 21: The Cen-tral Agricultural ResearchInstitute has been renamedas Central Island Agricul-tural Research Institute.Henceforth, the official cor-respondence if any, may be

address to The Director,Central Island AgriculturalResearch Institute, BathuBasti P.O., Garacharma,Port Blair-744 105, a com-munication received heresaid.

World of TB Day on 24th March 2014Port Blair, Mar 21: Like pre-vious year, this year also theState TB Control Society,A&N Islands will be celebrat-ing World TB Day along withthe rest of the country underRevised National TB ControlProgramme on the theme“Reach the three million”,find, treat and cure TB” byarranging various IEC activi-ties to create awareness onprevention and control of tu-

berculosis among the commu-nity.

On the observanceof World TB Day, a rally ofschool students has been ar-ranged from the premises ofCellular Jail to Aberdeen BusStand and back on 24thMarch 2014 at 9.00 AM tocreate awareness on TB andNew Treatment StrategyDOTS among the generalpublic, which will be off by the

Director of Health Services /Mission Director (UTHM).

Thereafter, a func-tion will be held at 11.30 amin the auditorium of G.B.Pant Hospital. Port Blair,where the Chief Guest willhandover the cash prizes tothe winners of essay compe-tition conducted on the occa-sion of World TB Day andthe undersigned will sensitizethe gathering.

Andaman Sai Seva Samiticonducts free heart camp at Diglipur

Diglipur, Mar 21: A free heartcamp was conducted today atDiglipur Island from 9.00 amto 5.00 pm at Subhash GramPanchayat Hall at Diglipur.Prof. Dr. G. Elangovan, M.D,DM (Cardiology). Dr. SudipChakraborty, MBBS, MD(Medicine) attended the pa-tients. About 400 patients (in-cluding children) sufferingfrom High Blood Pressure,chest pain, heart related prob-lems took the benefit of thefree Heath camp. Free medi-

cines were also given on thisoccasion. Earlier on 20 th

March it was conducted atRangat and about 130 patients

availed the benefits from freeheart camp. Andaman SaiSeva Samiti Organized thisfree camp.

Rodent EradicationCampaign at Diglipur

Diglipur, Mar 21: Seeing thedamage caused by field ratBandicota bengalensis, “Ro-dent Eradication Campaign”was organized successfully bythe Department of Agricul-ture, Diglipur field in associa-tion with ATMA inSubashgram, Khudirampur,Diglipur, R.K.Gram,Madhupur, D.B. Gram,Rabindrapally, Laxmipur,Sitanagar and Keralapuramvillages of Diglipur zone byinvolving farmers, farmerfriends and staff of the de-partment. The campaignstarted from 5th March andcontinued till 15th March2014.

The campaign in-cluded pre-baiting from 11thMarch to 13th March, 2014and baiting with zinc phos-phide on 14th March 2014.Before going for poison bait-ing, Smti Sreedevi AssistantDirector (Agri), Diglipur sen-sitized the farmers of all thetarget villages about the ro-

dent menace and its extent ofdamage caused to the farm-ers and their role in the cam-paign. Mr. U.K.Nayak, PlantProtection Officer and Mr.S.C. Bairagi, Technical Assis-tant, Central Integrated PestManagement Centre, PortBlair also discussed aboutvarious methods of rat man-agement, like bund trimming,weed free cultivation, trapsand the method of applicationof rodenticides and precau-tions to be followed. The baitswere prepared by involvingthe farmers under the super-vision of the Agriculture De-partment and Central Inte-grated Pest ManagementCentre, Port Blair.

The poison baits (15gm-20 gm.) were placed inthe identified locations in theevening and the followingmorning the dead rodents andleft over baits were collectedand disposed safely by thefarmers under the supervisionof staff of Agriculture Depart-

ment. Rodent control mea-sure adopted was successfulin the affected fields. Tech-nical guidance and materialsrequired for poison bailingwas provided by the Agricul-ture Department. For public-ity the department has givenhandouts of the schedule ofthe programme and precau-tions to be followed by thefarmers while going for poi-son baiting in the local lan-guage.

The farmers are ad-vised to be more vigilant andif rodent menace is noticed,timely action should be takento control this problem in theirfields/homesteads as thefarmers have been trainedwith the techniques of rodenteradication through this cam-paign.

Necessary technicalguidance and rodenticide willbe provided by the AgricultureDepartment. For further de-tails farmers can contact theirnearest sub-depots inchages.

Four injured...

that while over taking anothervehicle, the car driver lost hisbalance after hitting the roaddivider and hit a private busfrom front. The bus was onthe other side of the road. All

(From page 1)

four people inside the carreportedly sustained minorinjuries and were taken to GB Pant Hospital. A case hasbeen registered in thisregard.