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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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Somaiya demands SIT probe into alleged PWD scam

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BJP leader Dr Kirit Somaiya makes a point during press conference while MLAs Krishna Khopde and Vikas Kumbhare, and BJP State Spokesperson Girish Vyas look on. 




By Dheeraj Fartode

Former Member of Parliament (MP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National Secretary Dr Kirit Somaiya, on Friday, alleged involvement of PWD Minister Chhagan Bhujbal in a scam in allotment of works to companies floated by kin of PWD officials. He demanded a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the ‘PWD scam’.
Addressing a press conference at BJP Vidarbha Office here, Somaiya circulated to journalists a list of 19 officials of PWD whose relatives had floated various companies that had bagged contracts of PWD. The list included at least two officers from Nagpur namely T P Rathod, a Deputy Engineer; nad B R Lunge, a Superintending Engineer. “Sons of both the officers own different companies that bagged PWD contracts,” he alleged. Besides, he alleged, a Nagpur-based contractor ‘closely associated with PWD Minister Chhagan Bhujbal’ also had bagged PWD contracts and he had done sub-standard work of Ring Road in Nagpur.
Somaiya accused PWD and Minister Chhagan Bhujbal of involvement in large scale corruption worth Rs 5,000 crore and demanded SIT probe into the scam. “I have submitted all information to Anti-Corruption Bureau as well as Chief Secretary regarding irregularities in PWD,” he said. He flayed Bhujbal for allegedly shielding the officials involved. “I wonder if Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and NCP chief Sharad Pawar also support Bhujbal’s stand,” he said.
Somaiya also questioned how Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) could give clean chit to former Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal in the Railway appointment scam. “How can CBI Director Ranjit Sinha give clean chit to Bansal even when Joint Director of CBI Pramod Kumar is still conducting inquiry into the case?,” Somaiya asked. Bansal invested money in more than 100 companies owned by his relatives, he added.
MLA and BJP city chief Krishna Khopde, MLA Vikas Kumbhare, BJP State Spokesperson Girish Vyas, and Chandan Goswami were present at the press conference.
It may be mentioned here that Bhujbal has already announced to conduct a probe into allegations levelled by Somaiya. Bhujbal had said a day back that merely providing list of companies did not prove charges of corruption. Everyone was free to run a company, he had said. 


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