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Hindustan Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Hindustan Times
14 years on, GMADA yet to hand over showrooms against acquired land
Even though the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) had acquired land for the IT City housing scheme at Aerocity in December 2011, around 300 landowners from seven villages, who had applied under the land pooling scheme, are still awaiting possession of their showrooms. Through the land pooling scheme, owners were to be provided with residential or commercial plots instead of monetary compensation in lieu of their land. The size of each showroom is 100 square yards. In contrast, GMADA had already given possession of residential plots in IT City in 2019. According to records, letters of intent (LOIs) were issued in 2013 for 100 square yards SCOs and booths, based on entitlement. The draw for allotment of commercial sites and booths to LOI holders was conducted in August 2021. However, more than three and a half years later, the original allottees have still not received allotment letters or possession of their sites, preventing them from constructing buildings and starting businesses to earn a livelihood. One allottee, Harpal Singh, said, 'GMADA had acquired the land more than a decade ago but has still not given us possession of the showrooms under the land pooling scheme, despite repeated requests.' He added, 'On the other hand, Manav Rachna School and companies such as Infosys and HDFC have already constructed their buildings and are running their operations. It is unclear why GMADA is delaying possession when the infrastructure at the site is already complete.' When contacted, a senior GMADA officer said, 'There are some issues related to services and the alignment of the choe (seasonal stream) passing through the area. We are hopeful that the matter will be resolved soon and possession will be handed over in the next few months.' Another landowner, Sajjan Singh of Chajumajra village, expressed his disappointment, stating, 'There is a lot of discontentment among allottees due to the non-issuance of allotment letters and possession. Many of our children are unemployed and our livelihood is at risk as our agricultural land was acquired way back in 2011. Although the draw for commercial plots was conducted and numbers allotted in 2021, possession has still not been given. Our children and family members are waiting to start their businesses to support the family.' The IT City spans 1,722 acres across Sectors 66-B, 82-A, 83-A and 101-A, adjacent to Airport Road. The first housing scheme in IT City was launched in February 2014, offering 325 residential plots at ₹23,500 per square yard. The second scheme was launched in July 2016 with 750 plots at ₹20,000 per square yard. The most recent one was launched in April 2018.
India.com
19-05-2025
- India.com
Top 7 Photography Spots In Udaipur To Capture During The Monsoon
Udaipur exists as a romantic city which goes by two names: 'City of Lakes' and 'Venice of the East' located in Rajasthan's Indian territory. Udaipur emerges as a magical wonderland after monsoon rains due to its royal palaces together with tranquil lakes as well as its living cultural atmosphere. The rains bring new vitality to the city which converts its green landscapes and fills the lakes completely. Photographers experience an excellent opportunity to bring back amazing images of Udaipur during its complete beauty. The seven most attractive places in Udaipur for photography perform exceptionally well during the monsoon season. 1. Lake Pichola During the monsoon Lake Pichola in Udaipur stands out as one of the city's most iconic landmarks because it gains an enchanting appearance. Lake Pichola turns into a dreamlike reflection when rain clouds appear because it perfectly shows the Aravalli hills and their surrounding palaces and temples. The silhouette of Jag Mandir and the Lake Palace (Taj Lake Palace) stands out against skies filled with mist. During the wet season photographers obtain wonderful images of boat movements across tranquil waters which feature the flourishing vegetation. 2. Monsoon Palace (Sajjangarh Palace) From its position on the Aravalli Hills visitors can see the entire Udaipur area along with the lakes that surround it. Maharana Sajjan Singh constructed this palace during the late nineteenth century as he wanted to use it for observing monsoon clouds. The palace offers prime photographic opportunities to capture moving clouds and misty mountain top scenery and shining lakes that reflect below. The monsoon season creates remarkable light-shade relationships that turn this location into an outstanding spot for photographing mystical landscape vistas. 3. Fateh Sagar Lake Surrounded by hills on three sides Fateh Sagar Lake stands as another beautiful lake addition to Udaipur with its serene landscape during the monsoon season. Rainwater collects in the lake while nearby Nehru Garden provides vibrant colors to the landscape. During this picturesque moment transparent forest hills and blue skies amount to a traditional attractive picture. At Sunset Point photographers can capture pictures of the sun sinking beyond the hills which causes the lake to glow in golden shades. 4. Bagore Ki Haveli Bagore Ki Haveli sits by Lake Pichola where it showcases its traditional architecture together with its cultural heritage importance. When the monsoon season arrives the haveli reveals its colourful facade which enhances its beauty through the adjacent lake water. All elements of this Rajasthani heritage building including courtyards along with the jharokhas and frescoes create excellent architectural photography opportunities. Visitors have the chance to capture the traditional Rajasthani performances during evening cultural shows because the drizzling sky creates the perfect backdrop. 5. Saheliyon Ki Bari Maharana Sangram Singh constructed the 'Garden of the Maidens' which today becomes known as Saheliyon Ki Bari. The beauty of this spot reaches its peak during the rainy season because it merges its attractive fountains and lotus pools and marble pavilions with blooming flowers and abundant flora. Professional photographers along with amateur photographers choose this location due to its magical appearance during rainy days. Panorama views of the garden taken with water reflections generate remarkable visual appeal. 6. Ambrai Ghat Udaipur residents and visitors spend their time at Ambrai Ghat to experience the city's character as the spot sits on the Lake Pichola shoreline. The ghat at the monsoon season provides complete visibility of City Palace and Jag Mandir and Lake Palace while rain fills the skies. Photographers can produce various creative images because the stone steps leading to the water create multiple possibilities while the lake mirrors the architectural landmarks. The ideal time for photographers to take advantage of natural soft light during monsoon seasons is either during the first hours of the day or the last hours of daylight. 7. Eklingji Temple Complex Located near Udaipur exists Eklingji Temple complex which comprises more than 100 temples constructed from marble and sandstone while worshipping Lord Shiva. When the monsoon descends upon the temple complex it becomes fully enveloped by greenery while the rain-enhanced structures gain a sacred character. The beautiful artwork of temple stone carvings and sculptures becomes noticeable when they contrast with the moist temple surfaces. Photographers can choose between making wide-angle compositions of the complete complex or showing up close details on the craftsmanship of the buildings. Visitors to this location find it essential due to the blend of holy tranquility with awesome natural scenery. Bonus Tips for Photographers The ideal times for photography at this location are early mornings combined with late afternoons since monsoon clouds produce diffused light. Waterproof cases serve to shield camera equipment from both dampness and brief rainfalls. Create pictures with depth and intrigue through interesting reflection techniques at lakes and puddles in your photos. Records of local people performing their daily activities such as farming and fishing should be captured because monsoon becomes a prime time for their traditional practices. Final Thoughts When monsoon season arrives in Udaipur the city becomes an ideal spot for photography which presents perfect opportunities to explore natural splendors alongside remarkable architecture and vibrant cultural scenes. Each photographic destination in this area holds its own distinctive charms because it presents its visitors with a different set of attractions. Your photography journey through the main destinations of Lake Pichola, Monsoon Palace, Fateh Sagar Lake, Bagore Ki Haveli, Saheliyon Ki Bari, Ambrai Ghat and Eklingji Temple will enable you to build a remarkable photography collection which showcases the spell of Udaipur monsoons. Take your equipment while enjoying wet weather because this destination will stimulate your creative process.
Indian Express
04-05-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
How a landowner challenged Rajasthan's land ceiling law to protect his 175 acres — and lost
About 70 km from Jodhpur, in Pali district's Deoli village, was Sajjan Singh's 175 acres of agricultural land. In 1964, he was a khatedar tenant, a landholder who paid a nominal annual rent to the Rajasthan government when the state introduced a new law that capped land holdings. The land ceiling meant that a family of five could not own more than 25 acres. Singh had to challenge the Rajasthan Tenancy Act and the crucial Seventeenth constitutional Amendment that backed such ceilings and kept them out of the purview of judicial review. The case — Sajjan Singh v State of Rajasthan raised a question that we continue to debate even in the 75th year of the Constitution — what is the extent of Parliament's power to amend the Constitution and the role of the judiciary to guard against encroachment of fundamental rights. On October 30, 1964, a five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court reaffirmed its view that Parliament has the power to amend any part of the Constitution, and upheld the Amendment and the consequent laws. 'It appears unreasonable to suggest that the Constitution-makers wanted to provide that fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution should never be touched by way of Amendment,' then Chief Justice PB Gajendragadkar wrote. Singh and the sanctity of fundamental rights were on the losing side. However, two judges — Justices R Mudholkar and M Hidayatullah — expressed doubts on Parliament's power to abrogate rights. The dissenting view would in later cases shape the course of constitutional history. The case Since the Constitution came into force in 1950, the Jawaharlal Nehru government's land and agrarian reforms laws were met with resistance from the Supreme Court on the grounds that they breached fundamental rights. In the First Amendment itself, Parliament had introduced Articles 31A and 31B, the first provision stated that no land acquisition law would be deemed void because it violated any of the fundamental rights. In 1954, Parliament brought in the Fourth Constitutional Amendment, expanding Article 31A, which then stated that laws providing for 'the acquisition by the State of any estate or of any rights therein or the extinguishment or modification of any such rights' cannot be deemed void because they were inconsistent with Articles 14 (the right to equality), 19 (rights from speech to practicing trade) or 31 (right to property, which was later repealed and replaced by Article 300A in 1978). In the Seventeenth Amendment, Parliament sought to expand the definition of estate to include any jagir, inam or muafi (in the States of Madras and Kerala, any janmam right) and any land held under ryotwari settlement. The widening of the definition was to undo the effect of the SC striking down the Kerala land ceiling law in 1961 on the grounds that the term 'estate' did not include the lands of ryotwari pattadars. On May 27, 1964, a special session of Parliament was called in to introduce the crucial Seventeenth Amendment. The Amendment was passed with 318 ayes to 31 noes, and the Lok Sabha was adjourned. Incidentally, just minutes later, it was announced that Nehru was dead. Sajjan Singh's son, Virendra Singh. Special Arrangement Sajjan Singh, an influential Rajput landowner born in 1921, was the first to move the Supreme Court. His father, Thakur Madho Singh, was the aide-de-camp (a personal assistant of sorts) to Maharaja Umaid Singh of Jodhpur and was granted the thikana (estate) of Deoli in Pali. The 175 acres included land in Tikhi village, Jalore, and Deoli in Pali. In search of a male heir, Sajjan Singh had married thrice and in his twilight years, he had adopted his nephew Virendra Singh. Associated with the Swatantra Party and the Congress, Virendra Singh was a pradhan, a zila pramukh and in 1972, a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Pali's Sumerpur. He died in an accident in 1987. In the 1951 Sankari Prasad case, the Supreme Court had upheld the First Amendment and said that there was a clear demarcation between ordinary law, which is made in exercise of legislative power, and constitutional law, which is made in exercise of constituent power. Therefore, a constitutional amendment had to be treated differently even if it violated fundamental rights. Sajjan Singh's case was an opportunity for the Supreme Court to relook at Sankari Prasad's case. The First Amendment, after all, was brought in by the provisional Parliament, which at that time had no Rajya Sabha and therefore did not follow the due procedure prescribed by Article 368 for amending the Constitution. Chief Justice Gajendragadkar and two other judges disagreed that Sankari Prasad must be reconsidered. 'In the present case, if the arguments urged by the petitioners were to prevail, it would lead to the inevitable consequence that the Amendments made in the Constitution both in 1951 and 1955 would be rendered invalid and a large number of decisions dealing with the validity of the Acts included in the Ninth Schedule which have been pronounced by different High Courts ever since the decision of this court in Sankari Prasad's case was declared, would also be exposed to serious jeopardy,' the majority opinion said. However, two judges opened a window. Justice Hidayatullah's opinion, even while upholding the Amendment, wondered how far Parliament could go. 'The Constitution gives so many assurances in Part III (that deals with fundamental rights) that it would be difficult to think that they were the playthings of a special majority.' Justice Mudholkar, in his opinion, wrote about harmonising a parliamentarian's duty of allegiance to the Constitution with the power to make an amendment to it. He also cited a judgment of the Pakistan Supreme Court, which did not allow its President to make 'an alteration in a fundamental feature of the Constitution'. Although Sajjan Singh lost the case that bears his name, it paved the way to the landmark 1973 Kesavananda Bharati ruling that established the 'basic structure' test to balance Parliament's power to amend the Constitution. The difference of opinion among the five judges in Sajjan Singh's case echoes even today. Just last month, Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar said Parliament is supreme and that elected representatives are the final arbiters of the Constitution. He was speaking in the context of the April 8 Supreme Court ruling that set timelines for Governors and the President to grant assent to Bills. In the past, Dhankhar and several other legal scholars have criticised the Supreme Court for striking down the constitutional Amendment setting up the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) and have argued that the judiciary ought to have recognised Parliament's power to amend the Constitution. Senior advocate Raju Ramachandran, a 'qualified critic' of the basic structure doctrine, says 'a constant creative tension' between Parliament and the judiciary is good for democracy. A later part of the series will focus on the 1967 case, I C Golaknath v State of Punjab, that reversed the Sajjan Singh ruling. The debate on the right to property, perhaps the most contested fundamental right, was settled only in 1973, with the Kesavananda ruling. But the larger questions continue. 'No generation has a monopoly on wisdom. As long as the critique is well articulated, these are issues to be revisited in every generation,' Ramachandran says. 1964 Sajjan Singh v State of Rajasthan The case: Sajjan Singh, an influential Rajput landowner from Rajasthan, challenged the state's land ceiling law to protect his 175 acres of agricultural land. He also challenged the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution, brought in 1964, which protected land ceiling laws from judicial scrutiny on the grounds that it violated fundamental rights. A five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court reaffirmed its view that Parliament has the power to amend any part of the Constitution and upheld the Amendment and the consequent laws. Relevance today: The central question that divided judges 3:2 in Sajjan Singh's case remains relevant even today — what is the extent of Parliament's power to amend the Constitution and the role of the judiciary to guard against encroachment of fundamental rights.
News18
22-04-2025
- Politics
- News18
Raisina Hill: What Existed Before Rashtrapati Bhavan And Who Owned The Land?
Raisina Hill, once a village, became Rashtrapati Bhavan's site after the British moved the national capital to Delhi in 1911. Long before the stately domes and manicured gardens of Rashtrapati Bhavan began to dominate the skyline of New Delhi, the land it stands on had a much humbler identity. Known then as Raisina Hill, it was little more than a modest village where about 300 families led simple lives, relying on agriculture and cattle rearing. But the tide of history was about to sweep through this quiet enclave in a way no one could have imagined. The transformation began in 1911 when the British Empire, during the Delhi Durbar of that year, declared that the national capital would be shifted from Kolkata to Delhi. This strategic move was rooted in both historical resonance and geographical convenience. In the aftermath of that decision, Raisina Hill was chosen as the epicentre of the new capital. Its elevated terrain made it a prime candidate for housing the most important buildings of the British Raj, including what was then envisioned as the residence of the Viceroy. The land, however, was not empty. A report from DNA suggests that prior to the British taking ownership of the land, the area was under the ownership of Jaipur's Maharaja Sawai Madho Singh who, at that time, gifted the Jaipur Column, a towering structure in front of Rashtrapati Bhavan which stands as a tribute to the royal association. However, in recent years, some people have came forward claiming that they are the original owners of Lutyens' Delhi, which includes the land where the magnificent Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament, North Block, and South Block are located. As reported by The New Indian Express, residents of the erstwhile Malcha village, now known as Raisina Hill, have accused the Centre of failing to provide compensation for ancestral land appropriated nearly 103 years ago. According to a few reports, the British government, in 1912, had acquired about 1,700 acres of the land from farmers residing in 150 villages. Some of the descendants of those farmers, now relocated in Haryana, are asking for compensation for the acquired land at the current market rate. As per a petition filed at the Delhi High Court, the petitioners, Sajjan Singh and Kadam Singh, claimed lineage to original residents of Malcha village and currently reside in Sonepat, Haryana. Their plea challenged what they call an unjust land grab executed under the Land Acquisition Act of 1894. Construction of the grand Viceroy's House, renamed Rashtrapati Bhavan after independence, began in 1912 and took 17 long years to complete, wrapping up in 1929. It was a massive undertaking in every sense. Originally expected to be finished in four years, the project ballooned in both time and cost, eventually consuming over Rs 1.38 crore. Two architects, Sir Edwin Lutyens and Sir Herbert Baker, were entrusted with the design. Lutyens in particular left a lasting mark on the city; the surrounding area, known today as Lutyens' Delhi, still bears his name and architectural legacy. A blend of Indian motifs and Western classical styles, the building is a harmonious fusion of domes, columns, and intricate carvings, a testament to imperial ambition and architectural grandeur. The construction process itself was a monumental feat. Raisina Hill had to be flattened significantly to accommodate the sprawling structure. This meant extensive use of explosives and the transportation of massive quantities of soil and stone. A special railway line was laid to facilitate the movement of heavy building materials, including sandstone and marble sourced from Rajasthan and other parts of the country. Rashtrapati Bhavan today boasts 340 rooms, including the majestic Durbar Hall and sprawling Mughal Gardens that draw thousands of visitors annually. Yet, beneath its polished floors and gilded ceilings lies a story of displacement, royal patronage, colonial ambition, and architectural marvel, a story rooted in a once-quiet hill that rose to become the most powerful address in the country. News18's viral page features trending stories, videos, and memes, covering quirky incidents, social media buzz, and global sensations. From heartwarming reunions to bizarre events, it keeps you updated on what's capturing the internet's attention First Published:
