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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,...

Non-performing Police Inspectors to be shunted

Published on November 2, 2019

Mass reshuffle among station in-charge is on cards in Nagpur Police Commissionerate as top brass is keen to bring back experienced officers in key police stations. With model code of conduct relaxed, Commissionerate is firming up plans to change the officers in charge at various police stations who are not upto mark.
A section of Police Inspectors (PIs) would be transferred to side branch within next two weeks as they failed to control crime in their respective jurisdictions, claimed sources.  
Commissioner of Police (CP) Dr. Bhushankumar Upadhyay confirmed the information and told The Hitavada that four to five in-charge of police stations are likely to be entrusted new assignments very soon. These officers are currently posted at police stations but owing to various reasons they failed to impress the senior with handling of the affairs of police stations entrusted to them.
Sources informed that before code of conduct for Lok Sabha polls came to fore, the top brass was forced to shift old guards of police stations to Crime Branch and other side branches. This was necessitated as Commissionerate had to act as per the guidelines of Election Commission. Officers who completed three years in the respective district during the last four years or would be completing three years had to be transferred. A major concession provided to Commissionerate was that they could post such officers to side branch or otherwise earlier such officers were moved out of district. 
Acting on the guidelines, many good officers with proven track record were posted to side branch of city police and newly promoted officers were given the charge of police station. The inexperience resulted in the new officers failing to take grasp of station affairs. Many of them were new to city and were entrusted with sensitive police stations where they were done in by rivalry within constabulary thereby sinking their  performance.
Soon after the Lok Sabha elections, the city voted for Assembly elections and these officers remained on their chair with their lackluster performance. As the Code of Conduct has been lapsed, these non-performing officers would most likely to be posted to side branch.
A top official said : “Now, we have many choices to appoint experienced officers as in-charge of police station. Complaints against eight officers including two from crime branch were received during the last six months for their failure to control the crime. These officers were not working as per out expectations as far as detection of crime and preventive measures are concerned, they were not upto mark.”
In-charge of police stations are the real commanders in the field if they are weak and bad administrators, the entire police personnel in that police station starts their arbitrary, the official further said.  

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