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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 of Rs 91 lakh seized from BJP minister in Maharashtra

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Cash worth over Rs 91 lakh belonging to Lokmangal Group of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s MLA and Cooperative minister in the state government Subhash Deshmukh, was seized by the squad of Osmanabad municipality on Wednesday. The cash reportedly comprised of the now-invalid tender of Rs 1000.


After news of seizure of notes spread in the Maharashtra, the opposition united and launched salvo at the government for indulging in corruption. The opposition demanded immediate action against Deshmukh as the vehicle belongs to Deshmukh, said spokesperson of Congress Party. 

The opposition has also sought an enquiry by Income Tax department into bank transactions of state BJP leaders to "unearth black money". When our reporter contacted Deshumukh, he was not reachable. His assistant claimed that the minister is out of town.

"(Recovery of cash) proves that BJP leaders are in the possession of black money. Since the government has launched a campaign against black money and corruption, properties of the BJP leaders should be searched to unearth black money.

State unit Congress spokesman Sachin Sawant has demanded a probe by I-T department into the bank accounts of prominent BJP leaders in the state and the transactions made into them in the last six months.

A few days ago after the demonetisation, old currency notes worth more than Rs 6 crore were seized from the brother of a BJP MLA in western Maharashtra while Rs 91 lakh has been seized from Subhash Deshmukh's Lokmangal Bank in Umerga town, Sawant stated.

"He (the minister) should be sacked from the ministry and arrested," NCP spokesman Nawab Malik said in a press conference. 


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