PORT BLAIR: Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Monday visited Chaudhury Ghumai, the site where the controversial semi-naked dance of Jarawa girls was allegedly shot in 2008.
Lieutenant Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands Bhopinder Singh and senior officials of A & N administration accompanied the Home Minister to Chaudhury Ghumai which falls under Jarawa tribal reserve forest along the Andaman Trunk Road (ATR). “At Chaudhury Ghumai, the Home Minister interacted with the staff of the Andaman Adim
Janjaty Vikas Samity (AAJVS). He also got a first hand experience of driving along ATR through Jarawa tribal reserve forest,” sources said. According to a report by English weekly ‘The Lights of Andaman’, the controversial Jarawa video was shot on November 6, 2008, by some army personnel, who had come by two vehicles - a truck and a gypsy. The report claimed that the vehicles had crossed the checkpost at Middle Strait with special permission after the last convoy had left the point. However, this has not been confirmed by A & N administration till date.
Meanwhile, the Tribal Welfare Department on Monday said that Chidambaram’s visit had no connection with the Jarawa video case. “The visit aimed at assessing how the ATR is being managed by A & N administration,” Som Naidu, Director of Andaman’s Tribal Welfare Department, told ‘Express’. The Home Minister’s visit was not mentioned in official itinerary of the A & N administration.
Buffer zone
Earlier, on the way to ‘Chaudhury Ghumai’, Chidambaram met the Pradhan and villagers of Tushnabad, which is disturbed by buffer zone implementation and crocodile attacks. “We have submitted a memorandum to the Home Minister requesting him to keep the buffer Zone out of the area of Tushnabad panchayat as even fishermen in the village are getting arrested for entering the sea. We also informed the Home Minister that two persons have been killed in our area by crocodile attack in last three months,” Mohan Halder, the Pradhan of Tushnabad Village, told Express.