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

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  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,...
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Police downscale security of former minister

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By Dheeraj Fartode
City police have decided to downscale ‘Z’ category security cover of former minister Satish Chaturvedi to a modest X category under which only few police personnel are deployed without usual pomp and show.
Special Branch (SB) of City police has sent a proposal to state government to provide X-category security for the minister instead of existing Z-category due to lack of any security threat to him. Chaturvedi enjoyed security cover for one decade.
Satish Chaturvedi

BJP MLA Krishna Khopde had formally complained to Special Branch demanding downscaling of security cover provided to Chaturvedi. Khopde is president of City BJP and is fighting a bitter political and legal battle in East Nagpur with Chaturvedi and his loyalists. Chaturvedi has recently floated Hanuman Sena with the help of former aides of Khopde to counter him politically.

Police Inspector of SB M A Patil in his letter to MLA Khopde said that the police had reviewed the security cover for former minister on February 4, 2012 and sent a report to Director General of Police (DCP) of State police to withdraw Z-category security cover. The police again reviewed the security cover on September 10, 2012 and sent a proposal to DGP to provide X-category security cover.



MLA Khopde in a press release claimed that Chaturvedi hardly faces any security threat and was not occupying any important post. Instead of utilising police personnel to secure city and safeguard womenfolk, a large number of police force is deployed in the security cover extended to Chaturvedi, he claimed.
Home Minister R R Patil has already decided to review security cover of all political persons and downscale them in view of popular outrage. Now the security cover will be provided to only those with tangible threat perception and as advised by intelligence agencies.
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