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,...
Fire in Indian Railway train Central Railway has positioned a dedicated mobile number, 9004414444, at Zonal Security Control Room to take prompt action on information about carrying banned substances on trains. This has been done after a series of fire occurred in trains in recent past and the culprit was identified as inflammable material being transported in passengers bogies. The initiative was taken by Railway Ministry after a bogie of Solapur-bound passenger train caught fire on October 16, 2012. A highly placed source of Commercial Department confirmed the information on request of anonymity. The officer said that Chairman of Railway Board, Vinay Mittal, had written a letter to General Manager, Central Railway, Subodh Jain, to take care about recent incidents involving fire in coaches, which have led to loss of human life. Sources informed that passengers, who notice other passengers carrying inflammatory goods in trains, should pass on information on the mobile number...