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,...
Union Minister and BJP’s candidate for Nagpur Lok Sabha seat Nitin Gadkari declared his assets including 29 acres of agriculture land at Dhapewada, ancestral house at Mahal, a flat at MLA society in Worli (Mumbai) and jewellery worth over Rs 53 lakh. Collective value of Nitin Gadakri’s movable and immovable assets, as per the affidavit, is Rs 25,12,35,649. According to affidavit submitted along with his nomination papers here today, Gadkari revealed movable assets worth Rs 69,38,691 in his name, Rs 91,99,160 in his wife’s name and Rs 66,07,924 in Hindu Undivided Family (HUF). While immovable assets worth Rs 6,95,98,325 are registered in the names of Nitin Gadkari, while assets worth Rs 6,48,60,325 are registered in the name of his wife Kanchan and those worth Rs 9,40,31,224 are registered in the name of HUF. The HUF is taxed separately from its members. A total 15 acres of agriculture land is registered in the name of Kanchan Gadkari at Gadkari’s native village Dhapewada anot...