Skip to main content

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

  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,...

City gears up to witness NaMo Magic today

By Dheeraj Fartode
Orange City is all set to witness Modi Magic at its best on Tuesday evening at kasturchand Park, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address a massive public rally at historic Kasturchand Park on Tuesday evening.

After the grand success of Gondia rally where Prime Minister Narendra Modi mesmarised capacity audience, the star campaigner of BJP will be back in Vidarbha again on Tuesday to address two major rallies at Khamgaon and Nagpur.

Nagpur rally at Kasturchand Park will be in favour of  BJP candidates from Nagpur and Wardha districts. The party has started preparation for the rally at Nagpur to ensure record turnout. Modi will address two more rallies at Maharashtra on Tuesday morning- Dhule and Jalgaon before entering Vidarbha region.

On August 21, Modi had addressed a mammoth rally at Kasturchand Park while performing bhoomipujan ceremony of Metro Rail held before the announcement of elections, but it was an official and non-political function.

This time, the party rank and file has started efforts to ensure that in tune of Modi rallies elsewhere, Nagpur rally should also draw record crowds. Massive response to Gondia meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Vidarbha region on Sunday evening, has already charged up the ranks and file of BJP and party leaders are hoping that Modi magic will once again swing the results in their favour.

On Monday afternoon, state BJP spokesperson Girish Vyas briefed mediapersons about arrangements made about rally. Union minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, RPI President Ramdas Athawale, BJP state president Devendra Fadanvis, former MP Banwarilal Purohit, member of Rajya Sabha Ajaya Sancheti will also address the rally. BJP candidates for assembly polls including Devendra Fadnavis (South West Nagpur), Krishna Khopde (East Nagpur), Vikas Kumbhare (Central Nagpur), Sudhakar Deshmukh (West Nagpur), Sudhakar Kohale (South Nagpur), Dr Milind Mane (North Nagpur), Chandrashekhar Bawankule (Kamptee), Sameer Meghe (Hingna), Sudhir Parwe (Umrer), Mallikarjun Reddy (Ramtek) will be present on the dais during the rally.

Confident about BJP’s victory in the assembly polls, BJP leader Adv Ajay Agrawal, who fought election against AICC President chief Sonia Gandhi from Raibareli predicted complete sweep for BJP during ensuing assembly elections.

Former Mayor and MLC Anil Sole, who is incharge of Eastern Vidarbha, claimed that BJP would definitely win 27 seats out of 32 assembly segments of six district of Eastern Vidarbha. PM’s rallies are getting tremendous response which was never seen in past for any leader, he asserted. BJP workers are expecting a repeat of 2014 Lok Sabha election results when BJP led NDA had swept all the 10 Lok Sabha seats and out of 62 assembly segments, BJP with its old alliance partner Shiv Sena had established clear lead in 58 assembly segments.

Vyas further informed that Modi will address one more rally on October 9 at Kurha Road, Chandur Railway in Amravati district, in favour of Arun Adsad (Dhamangaon Railway) and other candidates from Amravati district and another at Bramhapuri in favour of candidates from Chandrapur and Gadchiroli districts.

Prof Rajesh Bagdi, Prof Sanjay Bhende, Balwant Jichkar, Dayashankar Tiwari, Sandip Joshi, Dr Rajiv Potdar, Bunty Kukde, Arvind Gajbhiye, Prem Zade are working hard for the rally. Kirtida Ajmera, Prabhakar Yeole, Chandan Goswami and others were present at the press conference.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

IGP Prasanna : The man who stopped Obama’s convoy

IGP Mallikarjuna Prasanna By Dheeraj Fartode  Published on Feb/17/2019 NOT many are aware of an episode during the then US President Barack Obama’s visit to India in 2010. The world’s most powerful man was made to wait for 11 minutes in his car while an Indian cop took on American officials for their unwarranted interference in the US President’s security. KM Mallikarjuna Prasanna, Special Inspector General of Police of Nagpur Range, still continues to work with the same pride, wearing his patriotism on the sleeve. “Had they (Americans) deployed their personnel for area security, then the message would have been Indians are unable to protect VIPs in their nation,” recounted Prasanna on the episode that is one of the highlights of his distinguished career of a skillful investigator. The story of the IPS officer of 2000 batch is worth a film. In fact, a movie (Nagarjun-starrer ‘Officer’) has already been made by Ram Gopal Verma last year. His real life script als...

DCP Sunil Kolhe gets IPS cadre

DCP (crime) Sunil Kolhe By Dheeraj Fartode About 28 State Police Service (SPS) officers were granted  Indian Police Service (IPS) cadre on Monday. At Nagpur, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) (Crime) Sunil Kolhe is among these officers. With their promotion, Maharashtra Government will fill-up the existing vacancies of cadre posts across the State. The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Government of India, approved the promotion and Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), issued the notification of 28 state police officers into IPS cadre.  Maharashtra Government had earlier empanelled the 28 officers for promotion of SPS officers into IPS and criteria was they should have served for atleast eight years as Superintendent of Police (SP) or Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP). The list includes names of officers belonging to Deputy Superintendent of Police (Dy.SP) batches between 1988 and 1995, who were promoted to the IPS cadre. The officers are S V Ja...

How a mom won fight for justice after 15 years

Pintu Shirke  THE love of a mother can move mountains. But for Vijaya Dilipsingh Shirke the task ahead was much tougher. She was taking on the mountain of a corrupt system, enduring threats to life, and fighting the might of muscle power. Never did she flinch even once, and after a longdrawn legal battle of 15 years ensured that the killers of her son did not go unpunished. After all, it was a resolute mother’s promise to her  slain son. On October 31, 2017 the mother was full of anxiety waiting for a word about the outcome of hearing in the Apex Court. The decision would have a bearing on the Shirkes’ years of struggle to get justice for their slain son Swapnil alias Pintu Shirke. When the learned Apex Court judges threw out challenge of main culprits, including prime plotter Vijay Mate, and upheld life sentence handed out by the High Court, the 15-yearlong fight of Vijaya Shirke had finally reached its logical conclusion. “The promise made to Swapnil when...