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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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2 crore orange trees lost in a decade at Vidarbha

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By Dheeraj Fartode
Apathy of Democratic Front (DF) government in resolving the problem in Orange cultivation in Vidarbha is killing the prosperous Orange yards. Now just two crore trees have remained as equal number of them fell to various germ attacks and lack of support on irrigation front from State Government, alleged, Sunil Shinde, ex-MLA here on Thursday.
Former MLA Sunil Shinde
Farmers need support from government to enable them to tide over huge losses due to fall in yield of Orange crop due to scattered rainfall. The flowers did not bloom as during the crucial period the rains dried-up in the Orange belt. The ex-legislator alleged that Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and Horticulture minister do not have time to even discuss the problems facing the Orange cultivators.
Shinde who was once close confidant of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo, Sharad Pawar, was addressing a press conference at Vidhan Bhavan premises. Technology Mission on Citrus started after initiative taken by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, however the project was not effectively implemented by the DF government.

He demanded a compensation of Rs 8,000/hectare; implementation of Citrus Estate on the lines of Punjab; Rs 14.2 crore for Regional Fruit Research Centre of Dr Panjabrao Deshmukh Agricultural University; 50 per cent grant on plastic crates and corrugated boxes for transportation of Oranges; availability of good quality saplings from Agriculture Department; grant of licence for extracting Orange juice pulp and for making products from Oranges; government help for Orange winery on the lines of one given to grape based wineries in West Maharashtra.

Deputy Leader of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Legislative Assembly, Nana Patole, MLA Nana Gawande were present at the press conference.

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