Five women perish in fire

300 houses gutted in separate incidents

FIVE WOMEN were killed and 300 houses were reduced to ashes in separate fire incidents in Gorakhpur division over the last 48 hours. Two dozen animals also perished.

Fire brigade personnel doused the flames later.

About 150 houses were destroyed in a fire at Semra Khurd village in Barhalganj on Tuesday.

Those affected were Shambhu Nishad, Rajkumar Yadav, Deep Chand, Mohan Mallah, Abhilash and Kedar, among others.

The fire brigade extinguished the fire after four hours.  According to reports, property worth Rs 10 lakh was gutted.

On Monday, 150 houses at Laxmiganj village in Kushinagar and 26 in Deoria were reduced to ashes. Fire broke out at Laxmiganj village in Kushinagar when the youth were trying to burn a beehive. The flames engulfed the locality within minutes.

The houses of Mallu, Ramvilas, Anirudh, Mishri, Mangroo, Mahadev, Achchewar and others were reduced to ashes.

In Deoria district, fire broke out at five places on Monday. Twenty-six houses, along with eight shops, were destroyed. Property worth Rs 20 lakh was gutted at Rampur Karkhana.

A dozen huts were destroyed at Barhaj.

A similar incident  took place at Bhagalpur, destroying a PCO and eight shops. 
However, the State Government, or the district administration had yet not provided in relief to the affected people, who had become homeless.

Crop damaged

BANDA: RABI CROP  worth Rs 2 crore, three residential houses and a shop were burnt to ashes due to sparking in the high tension line of 4,000 volts in Matondh village 18 km away from the district headquarters, on Monday evening. The crop was stored in the barn of Ajai Shukla. The fire brigade was unable to control the fire due to strong winds and their faulty equipment. They also reached the spot late .

Looted: Dr Bhoopendra Kumar was looted by  four dacoits while he was coming back from Korrahi village near Oran police chowki. His motorcycle (UP –90 B-7395), mobile phone, Rs 2000 in cash, wrist watch and Rudraksha necklace were snatched by the road robbers. An FIR has been lodged at the Badausa police station.

Flagged off: cabinet minister V Nishad flagged off two new buses on the Banda – Kamasin  route via Baberoo and Banda -Urai route via Hameerpur, Modaha and Kabaryee.