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,...
Police action against helmet-less riders is in full swing in the rural areas this year. As against 843 riders getting fined for not wearing helmet in entire 2021, the police have fined 900 riders in just two months of 2022.
It may be mentioned here that 466 persons were killed in road accidents reported in Nagpur district last year. Of them, 176 deceased persons (37.78 per cent) were two-wheeler riders; 85 were pedestrians (18 per cent) and 110 were car or taxi drivers/occupants (23 per cent). A large number of victims were not wearing helmet during the time of mishap, police said.
Police Inspector (Traffic) Vijay Mahulkar said that road accidents could be prevented with enforcement of rules and awareness about traffic rules among citizens.
The traffic branch along with special teams of local police stations are conducting special drives in their jurisdictions. As against 13,311 car drivers challaned for not wearing seat-belt last year, the police have fined 6,587 persons for the same in just two months of this year. Similarly, as many as 1,735 vehicles were fined this year for excess passengers, he said.
Informing about the awareness campaign, Mahulkar said that the cops were conducting seminars in schools to make 2.75 lakh school students of standard VIII to XII aware about traffic rules and regulations. “The police are also visiting companies and urging the company managers to make it mandatory for labourers to wear helmets and seat-belts,” he further added.
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| Nagpur Rural SP Vijay Magar |
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