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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| Yuvraj Chhatrapati Sambhaji Raje |
By Dheeraj Fartode
Scion of Kolhapur royal family Yuvraj Chhatrapati Sambhaji Raje, who is descendent of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, on Saturday said that the political leaders cheated Maratha community over reservation issue and hence, 90 per cent of the community members continue to be live Below Poverty Line (BPL) status. “We are creating pressure group in the State to get reservation to Marathas,” said Sambhaji Raje.
Addressing a ‘meet the press’ programme at Tilak Patrakar Bhavan organised jointly by Nagpur Union of Working Journalist (NUWJ) and Tilak Patrakar Bhavan Trust, Sambhaji Raje said, 56 pro-Maratha reservation organisations are with him for the cause and this issue is getting tremendous response across the State.
Sambhaji Raje is on ‘Shiv-Shahu Yatra Rayat Jagar Abhiyan’. The yatra that started from Shivneri fort on November 23 arrived in city on Saturday. “We are not against reservation to Other Backward Classes (OBC) or any other community. The government should raise upper limit of reservation, which is 52 per cent at present,” he said.
He further said that the government was positive on providing reservation to Maratha community. Reservation to the community will not hamper the reservations given to people belonging other communities,” he claimed. Response of a committee, which was set up by the government under chairmanship of Industries Minister Narayan Rane, is positive, he informed.
Talking about status of Shivaji Maharaj’s forts, the scion of royal family accused government for continuous carelessness of forts. “Condition of great forts of Shivaji Maharaj is deteriorated because the government had not paid any attention. The government should prepare a plan on the lines of Rajasthan, where the government had given package for their forts, and developed it as the tourist spot. It will definitely boost tourism sector of the Sate,” he added.
“The government should adopt first five major forts including Rajgad, Raigad, Purandar, Panhala and Sindhudurg and restore them,” he said. Sambhaji Raje further wanted that the government should not provide Charas and Ganja to Sadhus in Kumbhamela, which will be organised at Nasik next year.
President of Sambhaji Brigade Pravin Gaikwad, Prof Jemini Kadu, President of Tilak Patrakar Bhavan Trust Pradip Maitra, Secretary of NUWJ Anupam Soni and others were present at the press conference.
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