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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,...

Ayodhya verdict : City Police listing trouble mongers

Published on November 7, 2019

Ahead of Ayodhya verdict, the state Police has begin preparations for maintaining law and order situation in the state. The top brass of state Police has asked all unit commanders to make action plan for sensitive areas and trouble mongers. 
Sources informed that the unit commanders have conducted first phase of meetings with in-charge of Police Station and directed them to prepare list of trouble mongers. Two Policemen would be designated to keep watch on the these trouble mongers. If anyone create nuisance, the cops would immediately took him in custody. 
“In Nagpur, there are 14 localities have been identified as sensitive areas. We are making deployment plans for these areas,” said a top official on request on anonymity. 
Meanwhile, Director General of Police (DGP) Subodh Jaiswal had issued an wireless message on November 2nd cancelling leaves of Police personnel in the state till next order as a precautionary measure as the hearing in the Ayodhya land dispute case enters the final phase in the Supreme Court. 
The wireless message stated that leaves except medical leaves is banned from November 5 till further order. Jaiswal also asked for organising peace committee meetings immediately. “Unit commanders immediately conduct meetings of all officers and work out their deployment plan by November 4,” said DGP Jaiswal and asked to report compliance to Headquarters. 
While the wireless message stated that it was issued “in view of forthcoming Eid-E-Milad festival”, the unit commanders were orally directed to prepare for situation after announcement of Ayodhya verdict, said a top rank officer. Two companies of State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) would be deployed at Nagpur for next two weeks. 
Another official said that DGP Jaiswal had chaired a meeting of senior rank Police officials inclding ADG L&O recently. The officers in the meeting were reportedly directed to ensure proper law and order situation.
A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi has been hearing the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit for 39 days and had earlier set the deadline to finish arguments on October 18. This was later brought forward to October 17, but the CJI on Tuesday indicated that it would like to conclude all arguments by Wednesday.
The judgment will be reserved by the bench if the arguments conclude. The bench, also comprising justices SA Bobde, DY Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and SA Nazeer will have to pronounce the ruling by November 17 as the CJI will retire on that date. If the judgment is not delivered before his retirement, the entire matter would have to be heard afresh.

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