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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,...

47% murders are due to family disputes : CP



CP Dr. Bhushan Kumar Upadhyay addressing the press conference while Joint CP Ravindra Kadam, Addl CPs Nilesh Bharne and Dr. Shashikant Mahavarkar were looks on. 

Family disputes was the only reason behind 47 per cent reported in the city in year 2019, informed Commissioner of Police (CP) Dr. Bhushan Kumar Upadhyay on Monday and added that crime in the city decreased by 10 per cent last year compared to year 2018.  
Presenting the annual crime data at a press conference, Police Chief Dr. Upadhyay claimed that the city had become a lot safer because street crimes — like dacoities, robberies, thefts, crime against woman and chain snatching — had decreased.
According to statistics, murders showed an upward tick last year compared to the year before. The city  witnessed 83 murders last year against 77 murders in year 2018 with increase of 7.22 per cent. Of them, 39 murders took place due to family disputes. A total of 75 attempt to murders were reported in year 2019 against 77 in 2018 with drop of 2.66 per cent; dacoity cases dropped by 40 per cent as just 15 dacoities were reported in 2019 against 25 in 2019; as against 243 robberies in 2018, city witnessed 203 robberies in 2019 with drop of 16.46 per cent; House-breaking thefts, vehicle thefts and total thefts decreased by 6.64 per cent, 3.83 per cent and 8.58 per cent respectively in 2019 against 2018; city registered 43 extortion cases, down by 16.23 per cent as compared to 43 cases in 2018; against 166 rapes in 2018, last year 161 rapes reported with drop of 3.01 per cent. 
Dr. Upadhyay said that the crime had come down because of police’s massive preventive action and fine use CCTVs installed across the city. “As the city witnessed General and Assembly elections last year, the police had initiative massive preventive action against criminals sending 65 dreaded goons in the jails under stringent MCOCA,” he said . As against 8,318 preventive action cases in 2018, the police initiated action against 9,855 persons in 2019 with jump of 15.54 per cent.  A total of 13 gangs were booked under MCOCA while 33 dreaded goons were slapped with MPDA last year.  Similarly, the police have seized 17 pistols, 10 Desi Kattas, two Rifles, two mousers, three revolvers and 52 live cartridges from 41 persons last year. 
Last year, Dr. Upadhyay said they also had other initiatives such as Bharosa Cell, Community interaction, Damini Pathak, Chhatra Police initiative, Care, Operation Crackdown and Home Drop. Highlighting Home Drop initiative, the Police Chief said that they are receiving two to three home drop requests from women.
Joint Commissioner of Police Ravindra Kadam, Addl CP Crime Nilesh Bharne, Addl CP Dr. Shashikant Mahavarkar were present in the press conference.

Detection rate up by 2.31%

Out of 7,772 registered crime, the city police had managed to solve 5,006 cases with 64.82 per cent detection rate last year. In year 2018, the detection rate was 62.51 per cent as the police had solved 5,367 crimes out of 8,585 cases. 

Policemen to be divided in A, B and C rank based on their health parameters 

CP Dr. Upadhyay announced that the police staff would be divided into A, B and C categories depends on their health parameters. “We are going to issue health cards to police staff after conducting their health check-up. The health cards would be based on findings of doctors,” he said. 
Police personnel without any health issue will get ‘A’ category while police personnel facing health problems like blood pressure and Sugar will get ‘B’ category. The police personnel having serious health issue will be added in the ‘C’ category. 
The ‘A’ category personnel will be deployed in the field for bandobast and patrolling duties along with investigation work of crime; ‘B’ category personnel will be deployed according to keeping their health problems in mind while ‘C’ category personnel will get only official work including diary in-charge work, said CP.  “As many as 26 police personnel of city police were died last year and of them, 90 per cent lost their lives due to heart problems,” said CP. “We will also provide best medical care to our staff,” the CP assured. 


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