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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,...

Congress-BJP workers came face-to-face

Workers of Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came face-to-face in Mahal on Sunday. However, police personnel deployed at the spot managed the agitating workers and cooled them down.
DCP (Zone III) Lohit Matani informed that Congress corporator and Youth Congress leader Bunty Shelke took out a rally ‘Sangh Se Sansad Tak’ in the morning hours. The route was pre-decided but Shelke suddenly took a decision to visit Ganpati temple. However, police personnel deployed on the route blocked the Congress workers, DCP Matani said. Meanwhile, workers of BJP gathered near the spot and both sides launched slognerring against each other. Later, the police pacified the agitating workers of both parties.
In a press statement Bunty Shelke said that the rally was started from Gandhi Gate Mahal and BJP workers blocked the road when he was going to seek blessings at Ganpati temple. He alleged that the BJP workers did not respond to the police. When the rally came to Badkas Chowk, the BJP workers again tried to block the road. The rally was welcomed at various places in the city, he further added.
BJP’s Spokesperson Chandan Goswami, in a press statement, alleged that Shelke keeps trying new tricks to prove himself as a leader. “He had also burnt the RSS' cap a few years ago,” he alleged. RSS is a social organisation, but Shelke used to target it. On Sunday, the BJYM workers sensed that Shelke would do something to get publicity. The workers went to convince Shelke that RSS is a social organisation and he should protest at Samvidhan Chowk and not near RSS HQ, Goswami said.
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