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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,...

Police gain upper hand in Gadchiroli

By Dheeraj Fartode
DIGs Sanjay Latkar and A P Singh claimed that police are now in dominant position in battle against naxalites. The advances made by men in khaki have provided them an upper hand in the Gadchiroli district. “There is far difference in the situation in year 2009 and year 2014. Cops presence has increased with deployed of elite COBRA battalions of CRPF and they have pushed the naxalites to deep forests. Our presence has definitely titled the balance in favour of State. To a question the two officers said that the number of naxalites is now drastically reduced. But it was not an easy task for CRPF, given the difficult terrain and dense jungles which makes the task of guerrilla warfare a major challenge.

CRPF is strictly following Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) in the Naxal hit areas. “Our jawans are staying in jungle for four to five days during the patrolling.” “Government have provided modern equipment’ to  the force to control Naxal activities in the area and we have succeeded in the operation,” said DIG Singh. 

When asked about rise in suicides by CRPF jawans, the DIG Singh replied at Nagpur centre the cases are quite rare. Suicides happens everywhere in the society and the Jawans are also a part of the society. As per observation, jawans commits suicide after coming back from the leave. So we have focused on resolve the problems at home front of the jawans, he claimed. 

It can be mentioned that CRPF battalions were first moved in the Gadchiroli district for peaceful conduct of general elections of 2009. Nagpur Group Centre have five battalions out of which two are deployed in Gadchiroli, one in Chattisgarh, one at Orrissa and one in Jammu & Kashmir. With this, the Centre is also taking care of maintenance of three CRPF battalions of difference groups, which are deployed at Gadchiroli.

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