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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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COVID-19: 482 ‘isolation coaches’ of Central Railways lying idle

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A TOTAL of 482 coaches of Central Railways are lying idle after being converted into modified isolation wards for COVID-19 patients. The coaches are unused as the State Government has not yet requested for deployment of the coaches, stated a top-rank railway official.
According to information, Central Railways has modified 482 coaches for COVID-19 patients as per the directives of Ministry of Railways. Of them, 60 quarantine coaches with capacity of 16 persons in each were prepared by Central Railways Nagpur Division while 120 were prepared by Central Railways Carriage workshop, Matunga, Mumbai. 
Responding to Right to Information (RTI) query filed by Ajay Bose, Central Railways stated that Rs 77,678/- were spent for modification of each coach. The coaches have facilities of two bottle holders, two coat hooks, oxygen cylinder bracket, three sets of foot-operated dustbins, bathing arrangement, health faucet, bathing seat, mug, bucket. Each coach having separate block for nurse and doctors by making provisions of transparent plastic curtains, sufficient converted electrical points to accommodate other medical accessories. In all these coaches, middle berth was removed to create extra space, Central Railways replied to RTI query.
The middle berths had been removed and the lower portion of the compartment was plugged by plywood during modification. These coach isolation wards can be used for patients with mild symptoms of COVID-19 infection. While health infrastructure is exhausting in the State and many patients are not getting beds in the hospital, the State Government can use the coaches for patients.
Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) Shivaji Sutar of Central Railways told ‘The Hitavada’ that protocol for the coaches was defined. As per the protocol, the State Government would request for the coaches when their existing health infrastructure would exhaust. The State Government would send the request to Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare which directs the Railways for deployment of coaches. The Railways have nominated one official as Nodal Officer for the same, CPRO Sutar said.

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