Skip to main content

A Village Burnt Overnight: Tears, Loss and Survival in Dhamangaon Blaze

By
  Sitting amid the blackened remains of his home, 32-year-old Nikesh Gawali carefully broke open a half-melted plastic box with a screwdriver. His hands shook slightly, not out of fear, but out of hope. “I’m trying to find my daughter Aarti’s gold earrings,” he said quietly, still focused on the box. “She’s just five. I got them made recently after months of labour work.” The plastic box, warped and blackened by heat, was one of the few things left from his two-room house on the outskirts of Dhamangaon village . All around him lay ash, broken tin sheets and charred wooden beams. The walls had cracked under the heat and the front room’s tin roof had caved in completely. What remained was a blackened debris all around - almost nothing to suggest a home once stood there. Nikesh earns his living as an agricultural labourer, like many in the village. Work is uncertain and depends on the season. Those earrings weren’t just jewellery - they were a small dream, a reward for his hard work,...
Post a Comment

Railways introduced Nagpur-Jabalpur special train

Image
By

Central Railway is running a special train on Nagpur-Jabalpur route to clear passengers rush during the festive season. Passenger traffic on Nagpur-Jabalpur sector has seen an impressive growth. The booking status reveals a long waiting list and special train would ease the pressure on lone train on the route, said Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), Central Railway, Nagpur Division, Brijesh Dixit, here on Tuesday.
DRM appealed passengers to make optimum use of special train service to Jabalpur ex-Nagpur. There are plenty of vacant berths in Train No. 02159/02160 Nagpur-Jabalpur-Nagpur special train that started from October 2 and is available till November 30.
One of the distinct advantage of special train according to DRM Dixit are it convenient timings. Ex-Nagpur, Train No. 02159 is available on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday and it depart at 2.30 pm and reach Jabalpur the same day at 10.30 pm. The train stoppages include Pandhurna-15.45/15.47 hrs, Betul-16.53/16.55, Itarsi-19.05/19.15, Pipriya-20.05/20.07, Narsingpur-21.08/21.10, Madan Mahal-22.05/22.07. From Jabalpur the train runs on same days and journey starts at 5.45 am and arrival in Nagpur is at 1.30 pm the same day. On return journey the train timings at Madan Mahal-05.51/05.53, Narsingpur-06.50/06.52, Pipria-07.50/07.52, Itarsi-09.00/09.10, Betul-10.35/10.37, Pandhurna-11.48/11.50 hrs.
The traffic pattern on special train is being monitored and based on figures in future the train could also become permanent fixture, said the sources. But currently many of the passengers are not aware about the special train, the DRM said, but he is hopeful of getting encouraging response from next trip onwards.
Home Platform: Talking to mediapersons on Tuesday, DRM said, the work on Home Platform to come-up on Santra Market side is going on at fast pace. Once completed it would be eighth platform at Nagpur platform where passenger traffic is increasing at fast pace. Home Platform concept is quite peculiar and division plans to run and terminate all ex-Nagpur train from here after traffic starts from here. The new platform would decongest Western side of Nagpur railway station and passengers would also feel comfortable as they would not have to criss-cross through foot overbridge (FoB) to catch the train or for moving out of platform to circulating arena.
Further with Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) planning to open Anand Talkies railway underbridge (RuB) by December, it would ease the problem of connectivity between East and West Nagpur. Home Platform at Nagpur railway station may be commissioned by December, the sources said.

Timing of Nagpur-H Nizamuddin AC special will be change

Central Railway has taken-up with Railway Board the inconvenient timings of all AC Nagpur-Hazrat Nizamuddin-Nagpur special train. DRM Brijesh Dixit said, he has spoken to Delhi division officials and sounded hopeful of advancing the timing ex-Nagpur train atleast.
As per current time table, Train no. 02437 Nagpur-H Nizamuddin AC special train is to run on every Saturday and leave Nagpur at 3.50 am. The Hitavada published a report, slamming Railways for running train at odd hours. Based on the report, DRM Dixit took-up matter at Delhi and has pitched for advancing the time ex-Nagpur to 5.30 to 6 am. From H.Nizamuddin the train no. 02438 is to run on every Friday at 6.45 am and reach Nagpur station at 1.40 am the second day.
Asked about delay in decentralisation of passenger reservation system (PRS), the DRM said talks are on with postal authorities and very soon the proposal would materialise. He mentioned that booking of e-ticket has increased by 40 per cent during past three years and there is considerable drop in queues at PRS windows.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

IGP Prasanna : The man who stopped Obama’s convoy

By
IGP Mallikarjuna Prasanna By Dheeraj Fartode  Published on Feb/17/2019 NOT many are aware of an episode during the then US President Barack Obama’s visit to India in 2010. The world’s most powerful man was made to wait for 11 minutes in his car while an Indian cop took on American officials for their unwarranted interference in the US President’s security. KM Mallikarjuna Prasanna, Special Inspector General of Police of Nagpur Range, still continues to work with the same pride, wearing his patriotism on the sleeve. “Had they (Americans) deployed their personnel for area security, then the message would have been Indians are unable to protect VIPs in their nation,” recounted Prasanna on the episode that is one of the highlights of his distinguished career of a skillful investigator. The story of the IPS officer of 2000 batch is worth a film. In fact, a movie (Nagarjun-starrer ‘Officer’) has already been made by Ram Gopal Verma last year. His real life script als...
9 comments
Read more

DCP Sunil Kolhe gets IPS cadre

By
DCP (crime) Sunil Kolhe By Dheeraj Fartode About 28 State Police Service (SPS) officers were granted  Indian Police Service (IPS) cadre on Monday. At Nagpur, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) (Crime) Sunil Kolhe is among these officers. With their promotion, Maharashtra Government will fill-up the existing vacancies of cadre posts across the State. The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Government of India, approved the promotion and Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), issued the notification of 28 state police officers into IPS cadre.  Maharashtra Government had earlier empanelled the 28 officers for promotion of SPS officers into IPS and criteria was they should have served for atleast eight years as Superintendent of Police (SP) or Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP). The list includes names of officers belonging to Deputy Superintendent of Police (Dy.SP) batches between 1988 and 1995, who were promoted to the IPS cadre. The officers are S V Ja...
Post a Comment
Read more

How a mom won fight for justice after 15 years

By
Pintu Shirke  THE love of a mother can move mountains. But for Vijaya Dilipsingh Shirke the task ahead was much tougher. She was taking on the mountain of a corrupt system, enduring threats to life, and fighting the might of muscle power. Never did she flinch even once, and after a longdrawn legal battle of 15 years ensured that the killers of her son did not go unpunished. After all, it was a resolute mother’s promise to her  slain son. On October 31, 2017 the mother was full of anxiety waiting for a word about the outcome of hearing in the Apex Court. The decision would have a bearing on the Shirkes’ years of struggle to get justice for their slain son Swapnil alias Pintu Shirke. When the learned Apex Court judges threw out challenge of main culprits, including prime plotter Vijay Mate, and upheld life sentence handed out by the High Court, the 15-yearlong fight of Vijaya Shirke had finally reached its logical conclusion. “The promise made to Swapnil when...
2 comments
Read more