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Hindustan Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Hindustan Times
GMADA planning big for Mohali's growth while forgetting Ecocity-2
Amid its ambitious preparations to acquire around 2,600 acres of land in Mohali for residential, commercial, industrial and institutional development, the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) has failed to launch the Ecocity-2 (extension) scheme in New Chandigarh's Hoshiarpur village even 12 years after land acquisition. In 2013, GMADA had acquired 96 acres and issued letters of intent (LoIs) to the allottees the same year, but it is yet to begin development work. Over the past decade, residential and commercial plots have been carved out, but the project remains stalled, leaving the allottees in limbo. GMADA had paid compensation to landowners who opted for monetary settlement, but those who chose to receive plots under the land pooling scheme through this project wait in uncertainty. Avtar Singh, a landowner, said, 'It has been 12 years. As many as 106 residential plots and 66 commercial ones have been carved out, but the scheme is yet to materialise. No development activity has taken place.' 'GMADA took high-interest loans from banks to pay compensation to the farmers, but the amounts the latter received were meagre. The authority has been paying heavy interest on these loans, but there has been no effort to develop or launch the scheme and recover the amount by selling the plots,' he said. Echoing similar concerns, another landowner, Satvir Singh, said, 'In 2013, we were forced to hand over our fertile chunks of land which were our only source of income. Now, we feel betrayed. GMADA has issued only letters of intent under the land pooling scheme, but no allotment has been made.' According to Satvir, 'Without this (allotment), we cannot develop our plots to build houses or open showrooms. Our livelihoods and our kid's future are at stake.' 'The authorities are planning to initiate new schemes but what about the one which awaits completion for a decade?' he asked. When contacted, GMADA chief administrator Vishesh Sarangal said, 'We floated tenders to carry out development works recently. We require approval from the competent authority. Once we receive the same, the work on the project will begin.' In its executive meeting on June 6, GMADA had decided to acquire 2,600 acres across multiple sectors in Mohali. According to the decision, 236 acres will be acquired in Sector 87 for commercial use, 313 acres in Sector 84 for institutional purposes, 321 acres across Sectors 101 to 103 for industrial development and a substantial 1,800 acres in Sectors 120 to 125 along the PR-7 road for residential development. The land acquisition process is slated to begin next month.
Time of India
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
‘Space shortage' in Urdu dept: PU student seeks VC's intervention
Chandigarh: A student from the Urdu department at Panjab University has raised concerns over a reported classroom shortage, claiming that academic courses are currently being conducted in a single room. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Avtar Singh, a student affiliated with SOPU, has written to the vice-chancellor highlighting the alleged lack of basic infrastructure in the department. The letter, also marked to senior university officials, said one of the two rooms allotted to the department is being used for office work, faculty space, and storage, leaving only one classroom for all academic activities. The department reportedly offers multiple diploma and certificate courses in Urdu and Persian, along with MA Urdu (first and second year), yet faces a space crunch that, according to the student, is hampering academic quality. The letter points out that several part-time students enrolled in the department are serving officers and artists, and many prominent personalities have been alumni of the department. It urges the administration to immediately allocate additional classrooms and to review overall space utilisation across departments. A pamphlet uploaded on social media criticises the lack of action by both the university and student leaders, calling it a question of dignity and institutional standards.
Time of India
03-06-2025
- General
- Time of India
Online trolling wars at PU escalate into real-world clashes, harassment complaint filed by one
Chandigarh: What began as anonymous trolling and meme warfare among student factions at Panjab University has now spilled into the physical campus, sparking formal complaints and growing concerns about safety and political intimidation. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now In recent weeks, Instagram pages — many featuring anime, Ghibli-style art or AI-generated visuals — have targeted students with vague threats of 'scandals', trolling, and personal attacks. Some pages appear aligned with student organisations, while others mock leaders, professors and even grieving students. PU student Avtar Singh was among the first to formally raise a red flag. In a detailed complaint to the cyber cell, Singh alleged that a fake chat containing inappropriate messages, falsely attributed to him, was circulated to university-linked Instagram pages in an apparent attempt to defame him. "I want to make it absolutely clear that I have never sent any such messages," Singh said. "This was a deliberate attempt to humiliate me because I have raised questions about how things work here. The person behind it didn't succeed, but the damage and mental stress were real." Singh's complaint also mentioned that the same account had earlier left offensive comments on his photos before vanishing altogether on May 1. He has asked the police to trace the identity behind the handle and take legal action under cybercrime and defamation laws. Last week, members of the Students Organisation of India (SOI), allegedly accompanied by two to three outsiders, entered the university library and pulled a student out from the second floor and indulged in a physical spat. According to witnesses, the student had uploaded an Instagram story mocking a party member's reel in which they were seen throwing aside barricades near library. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now No official complaint has been filed in the incident, but it has caused unease among students, many of whom now fear retaliation over what they post online. The university administration had already asked Chandigarh Police in April to act against pages misusing its name and spreading misinformation. A committee is also working on a campus-wide social media code. "We have received some inputs and informal complaints about recent incidents on campus," said chief of university security Vikram Singh. "We are looking into them seriously. Ensuring a safe and secure campus atmosphere remains our priority."
New Indian Express
28-05-2025
- New Indian Express
Auto-lifters' gang busted, four nabbed from Punjab
NEW DELHI: Delhi Police has busted an inter-state syndicate of auto-lifters and arrested four Punjab-based receivers of stolen vehicles. They have been identified as Avtar Singh (40), Harpreet Singh (32), Paramdeep (42), and Manpreet (29), officials said on Tuesday. A total of 21 luxury cars were recovered from the accused. According to police, they studied the pattern of vehicle thefts, including timing and CCTV footage from various cases, which revealed that the accused mostly operate at midnight and primarily target luxury cars. It was found that some receivers from Punjab were active in Delhi, taking stolen cars to Punjab and selling them, especially in border districts. 'On May 7, information was received that Avtar would come in a stolen car with a fake number and go to Punjab. A trap was laid, and the vehicle was intercepted. Avtar and Harpreet were inside the car. Upon checking the engine and chassis numbers, the car was found to have been stolen from Saket,' Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Apoorva Gupta said. Both accused disclosed that they receive stolen cars and sell them in Amritsar and Ludhiana. They used to receive cars from Dashrath and Raj Kumar. The recovered car had also been received from them a few days earlier.
Indian Express
27-05-2025
- Indian Express
Vegetable vendors by day, sellers of stolen SUVs at night: Delhi cops bust auto-lifter gang
They sold vegetables by day and sold stolen luxury cars by night. This inter-state auto-lifting racket was running smoothly till the Delhi Police Crime Branch swooped in. They arrested four Punjab-based receivers and recovered 21 high-end vehicles — including Fortuners, Thars, and Cretas — all bearing fake number plates, forged registration certificates, and tampered chassis and engine numbers, police said Tuesday. The crackdown followed weeks of surveillance and pattern analysis, said police. Investigators noticed that the gang's operations were well-oiled and peaked around midnight, targeting luxury vehicles, which were stolen in a matter of minutes and moved to Punjab, especially its border districts. On May 7, based on a tip-off, a police team intercepted a stolen blue Baleno on the DND Flyway en route to the KMP expressway. The vehicle, bearing fake plates, was reported stolen from South Delhi's Saket. The two men inside — Avtar Singh (40) and Harpreet Singh (32) — were nabbed. A forged registration certificate was also seized from them, said police. During questioning, the duo admitted to being long-time receivers of stolen vehicles, which they sold across Amritsar and Ludhiana after modifying the cars and forging documents. They named their suppliers and admitted to involvement in 15-20 similar transactions. Police subsequently took them on a 10-day remand and launched raids in Punjab's Amritsar and Tarn Taran districts, leading to the arrest of two more accused — Paramdeep of Ludhiana and Manpreet of Ferozepur. Police said their probe revealed a consistent modus operandi: the gang purchased stolen high-end vehicles for Rs 4-5 lakh each, tampered with identification numbers, generated fake registration papers, and resold the cars as legitimate all over Punjab. The accused came from varied backgrounds. Avtar Singh, a former property dealer turned vegetable vendor, had previously been arrested in Amritsar and was linked to over 10 vehicle recoveries. Harpreet Singh, a BCA graduate with a stint in Cyprus as a pig farmer, turned to auto theft after returning to India. Paramdeep once ran an auto-parts factory that collapsed during the pandemic, pushing him into illegal vehicle trading. Manpreet, a civil engineer and former driver, also had two past arrests and a pending divorce case. The recovered vehicles span across multiple police jurisdictions in Delhi and beyond, including Saket, Shalimar Bagh, Tilak Nagar, Khyala, Dwarka, Keshav Puram, Vasant Vihar, and even Ghaziabad and Gurgaon.
