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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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Cash subsidy aimed at rolling back PDS: CPI State Council

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Dr Bhalchandra Kango. 


By Dheeraj Fartode
Maharashta State Council of Communist Party of India (CPI), on Tuesday, demanded White Papers on first phase of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), and also voiced its opposition to direct transfer of cash subsidy scheme. It also demanded judicial probe into multi-crore irrigation scam.

Dr Bhalchandra Kango, Secretary of CPI State Council, told reporters after the Council’s day-long meeting held in the city that direct transfer of cash subsidy scheme was aimed at rolling back public distribution system (PDS). “PDS is important in curbing price rise of essential commodities and ensuring proper prices for agricultural commodities. However, with direct transfer of cash subsidy, this system may be scrapped indirectly,” he said. CPI will create awareness among people about this, he added.

On the issue of Food Security Bill, Kango said that CPI would submit a memorandum with 5,00,00,000 signatures to the President of India and the Prime Minister of India in the month of March. On February 20 and 21, all Left parties had announced two-day strike to protest price rise, to press for application of social security measures to unorganised sector, abolition of contract system etc. CPI State Council also demanded White Paper on first phase of JNNURM to make it clear to people as to who got benefits of the scheme.

Flaying the State Government for poor handling of drought situation in Marathwada, Kango said that CPI had taken out a ‘Dushkal Dindi’ (rally) from village Jintur in Parbhani district from January 18. The rally would reach Aurangabad on January 24. He opposed the Government move to allow 89 thermal power projects in Vidarbha and allocating water from irrigation reservoirs to these projects.

CPI State Council also attacked the State Government over multi-crore irrigation scam and said that White Paper or appointment of Chitaley Committee were superficial measures to kill time till people were pacified. Kango demanded judicial probe into the scam to nail those responsible for non-creation of irrigation potential despite incurring huge expenditure of Rs 70,000 crore. Jammu Anand, Manohar Deshkar, Tukaram Bhasme, Shyam Kale and Purushottam Gotmare were present at the press conference. 




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