“Lakshadweep Administration has taken utmost care to ensure adequate connectivity between mainland and the Islands of Lakshadweep,” said a communication from the administration on Sunday, making an appeal against spreading what it called “misinformation” regarding travel arrangements between the group of islands and mainland .
Listing the services being done by both all-weather vessels and high-speed craft (HSC), the island administration said, “the allegations of insufficient connectivity are baseless and with ulterior motives”.
The communication from the administration said the allegation that the tickets of passengers, who did not show up in passenger reporting centre in Wellington Island, were not being distributed since April 1 was totally false and deserves strong condemnation.
“At the time of booking, a waiting list is generated on first-come first-served basis for those who could not book the tickets. This is being done for every single voyage in every single ship. Subsequently, during the process of boarding, when a passenger with confirmed ticket fails to show up at the reporting centre in Willingdon Island, the list of such tickets is prepared and the tickets are allotted to passengers based on their serial number in the waiting list. This ensures that there is complete objectivity and transparency in who will get the ticket. It also eliminates any human intervention and arbitrariness in distribution of tickets,” the communication added.
The communication came in the wake of reports that some of the Lakshadweep islanders may not be able to cast votes in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections due to non-availability of tickets to sail to the centrally-administered islands.
The official communication also made public the number of touches made by all-weather passenger ships to each of the islands between April 1 and 20, 2024. Accordingly, Kavaratti would see nine touches; Agatti eight; Androth, Kalpeni and Minicoy seven each; Amini, Kadmat, Kiltan and Chetlat four each, and Bitra three.
The island administration said the schedules were prepared in advance taking into consideration the number of people residing the islands and the number of island residents living in the mainland and other incidental factors. “This ensures that there is equitable focus on all the islands”.
In addition to the schedule for the month, there would be HSC of the Union Territory plying between mainland Androth and Kalpeni. The HSC were used normally for inter-island transportation. However, considering the elections and the beginning of the summer vacations, the HSC were also being reassigned for connectivity between Kochi and Androth and Kalpeni, the communication said. Between April 1 and 15 there were four touches on Androth and two touches on Kalpeni by the HSC. Additional HSC schedules from Kochi to Androth and Kalpeni island were also being planned after April 15 based on requirements, the communication added.
It was also pointed out that the Lakshadweep Administration is currently issuing online ship tickets through lakport.utl.gov.in. The website has been developed and maintained by the National Informatics Centre, Government of India. The Department of Port, Shipping and Aviation, U.T. Adminsitration of Lakshadweep, monitors the website and undertakes upgradations when necessary. Hence, the online booking platform is well maintained.
