Uttarakhand village boycotts Dalit families over drummer's no show
Gopeshwar (U'khand) (PTI): Dalit families of a remote village in Chamoli district were boycotted after a person from the community failed to turn up to play the drum at a temple due to illness.
The boycott was announced on Sunday by the local panchayat of Subhai village, located in the Niti Valley, near the India-China border.
There are about half a dozen scheduled caste families in the village which have been playing drums for generations at social, cultural, and religious festivals in the village.
However, when one Pushkar Lal could not turn up to play the drum at a religious event due to sickness, the local panchayat ordered the entire community's social boycott.
A member of the panchayat was caught in a video allegedly announcing the boycott and threatening the villagers with similar consequences if they did not follow the order.
According to the panchayat's order, the SC families were barred from using the forest and water resources in the village, buying essentials from shops, commuting in vehicles, and visiting temples.
The victim's families lodged a complaint at Joshimath Police Station, accusing two men, Ramkrishna Khandwal and Yashvir Singh, of being the architect of the order.
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Nine dead as fire breaks out in residential building in east Delhi
New Delhi (PTI): A fire broke out in a residential building in east Delhi's Vivek Vihar early Sunday, leaving nine people belonging to two families dead, including a toddler, officials said.
The incident was reported around 3.48 am at a four-storey building in Vivek Vihar Phase-I, following which police, fire and disaster management teams rushed to the spot.
According to the police, the blaze engulfed flats on the second, third and fourth floors of the building, prompting a large-scale rescue operation.The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained.
The Delhi Fire Service (DFS) said nine charred bodies were recovered from different floors.
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"One body was recovered from the first floor, five from the second floor and three from the staircase which was found locked," the DFS officer said.
Those found dead on the second floor have been identified as Arvind Jain (60), his wife Anita Jain (58), son Nishant Jain (35), daughter-in-law Anchal Jain (33) and grandchild Akash Jain.
On the third floor, three members of a family were found dead. They were identified as Nitin Jain (50), wife Shailey Jain (48) and son Samyak Jain (25).
On the first floor a woman identified as Shikha Jain (45) was found dead while her husband Naveen Jain (48) sustained injuries.
A senior police officer said, "Around 10 to 15 people were rescued from the premises during the firefighting operation. Two of them, who sustained minor injuries, were shifted to the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital."
A total of 12 fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the flames, while teams from the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), traffic police and local police assisted in the rescue and evacuation efforts.
Police said the fire was brought under control after several hours. Efforts are underway to determine the cause of the fire, police said.
Further investigation and proceedings are underway.
