Hyderabad, Aug 10: Hyderabad Police have arrested four persons for cheating people on the pretext of locating hidden treasure, officials said on Monday.

The sleuths of the Commissioner’s Task Force, Shamshabad Zone, in coordination with the Rajendra Nagar police, busted a racket involving cheating of innocent persons on the false pretext of locating hidden treasure (Gupta Nidhulu) buried beneath houses, a police officer said.

Police investigation revealed that the accused had cheated 11 people to the tune of around Rs one crore in different areas.

According to K.S. Rao, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police, Taskforce, the accused used to approach innocent and gullible people, claiming that they possessed special knowledge and could locate hidden treasure buried underground in residential premises. After digging the ground, they used to plant a sack containing coal along with duplicate gold-coated coins. Later, they absconded after stating that it would take some time to convert the coal into gold.

The accused have been identified as Mohd Munawar, Syed Ali Ashraf, Mohd Haji and Mohd Salman.

Police seized two four-wheelers, one auto-rickshaw, two motorcycles, four cell phones, 25 fake gold coins, coal, soil and puja material from their possession.

According to police, the prime accused, Munawar, was engaged in car denting and painting work. As his income was not sufficient to meet his family expenses, he allegedly hatched a plan to cheat gullible people by claiming that he had special knowledge and the ability to locate hidden treasure (Gupta Nidhulu) buried beneath their houses. He contacted his friends, who joined him in the illegal activity with the intention of earning easy money.

A case was registered against the accused at Rajendra Nagar Police Station under BNS sections 318(4), 351(2), 61(2) r/w 3(5).

The police said that it has come to their notice that, in recent times, some fraudsters have been moving around streets, villages, and towns claiming that hidden/underground treasures (Gupta Nidhulu) are available at certain places and are cheating the gullible people by making false promises.

Police have cautioned the general public not to believe or fall victim to such persons and their fraudulent activities.

New Delhi: The expenditure on India’s 1,847 major infrastructure projects, currently being implemented by the Centre, has reached Rs 21.97 lakh crore (as of June 2026), which represents over 54 per cent of the total investment of Rs 40.54 lakh crore earmarked for these mega projects, reflecting steady progress in the pace of work, according to a factsheet issued by the government on Monday.

Many projects have reached advanced stages of completion, with around 709 projects exceeding 80 per cent physical progress, while another 337 projects have passed 80 per cent of financial completion, the factsheet states.

The transport and logistics sector leads with the 1,341 projects worth Rs 22.32 lakh crore, reflecting the focus on connectivity.

These projects are playing a crucial role in pushing up the country’s economic growth rate and creating more jobs.

Efficient monitoring of infrastructure projects is being carried out through PAIMANA (Project Assessment, Infrastructure Monitoring and Analytics for Nation-Building) digital platform. Developed by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), PAIMANA is used for monitoring ongoing Central Sector infrastructure projects costing Rs 150 crore or more.

In addition to strengthening project monitoring, PAIMANA has expanded its role to support infrastructure performance monitoring through a dedicated Performance Monitoring Dashboard which was launched on April 16, 2026.

The Performance Monitoring Dashboard brings together performance indicators across key infrastructure sectors in a unified digital platform. The indicators are compiled from official data provided by the concerned Ministries and Departments and are updated periodically based on the latest available information.

A detailed indicator framework spans six infrastructure sub-sectors. These are Power, Civil Aviation, Telecommunications, Railways, Roads, and Ports, Shipping and Waterways.

The Performance Monitoring Dashboard has now been expanded to 165 indicators. This expansion includes the addition of 54 new indicators, significantly enhancing the comprehensiveness of infrastructure performance monitoring.

A single digital interface allows monitoring of performance sector by sector. It offers interactive visualisation and time-series analysis for policymakers, researchers and stakeholders.

A centralised dashboard delivers one cross-sector view of infrastructure sectors. This capability deepens inter-sectoral analysis.

The current framework gauges sectoral performance through growth rates. It reviews year-on-year, month-on-month and cumulative growth, targets and capacity utilisation in chosen sectors, the official statement added.

Ranchi, Aug 10: The Jharkhand students’ march towards the state Assembly intensified on Monday as security forces used water cannons after student protesters broke through police barricades.

A protester climbed atop a police barricade as the Assembly march by JPSC-JSSC aspirants gained momentum. Thousands of students are marching towards the New Assembly building to press their demands over alleged irregularities in recruitment examinations conducted by the Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) and the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC).

Student leader Devendra Nath Mahto said concerns of students were more important than his personal health condition.

“The future of the students here is being compromised, which is more painful than my health. It is deeply painful,” Mahto said.

Speaking further, he added, “My health is not more important than the future of the students whose opportunities are allegedly being sold. My health is very weak, but the situation is even more distressing. The future of lakhs of students is being continuously compromised.”

Mahto also said that the hunger strike launched by student leaders would continue until their demands were addressed.

“The hunger strike is still going on, and it will continue. We are heading towards the Assembly right now. The government should wake up and respond to the concerns of students,” he said.

A protesting student, Chandan Kumar, told media that student representatives had held discussions with ministers over the past two days.

“Yesterday, I was part of the delegation team and spoke to ministers for two consecutive days. Around 80 per cent of our demands were accepted, while the remaining 20 per cent were not. We demanded the cancellation of the 14th JPSC examination and action regarding pending recruitment backlogs from 2023 to 2025,” he said.

Meanwhile, BJP Jharkhand president Aditya Sahu and Leader of Opposition Babulal Marandi, along with party MLAs and workers, staged a sit-in protest outside Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s residence. Police later detained the BJP leaders and legislators who were participating in the demonstration.

Reacting to the issue, BJP Rajya Sabha member and senior advocate Ujjwal Nikam said the students’ concerns should be considered sympathetically.

“Everyone knows who is in power in Jharkhand. Have they met the protesting students so far? I believe the students’ demands should be considered sympathetically, just as the Government of India has done in similar situations. The Union government has also taken prompt action whenever necessary,” Nikam said.

Speaking to media, City SP Paras Rana said, “We have not prepared to stop the gherao. We have prepared for any violent situation or if someone tries to create a ruckus. If students come peacefully, the police will also remain peaceful. Our team will also deal with the situation peacefully.”

Jharkhand Minister Deepika Pandey Singh said the state government would allow JPSC-JSSC aspirants to protest peacefully and assured that pellet guns, tear gas, or lathi-charge would not be used against them.

She said the administration was taking all necessary measures to maintain law and order during the Vidhan Sabha gherao. Referring to the talks with student representatives, Singh said discussions had continued for several hours over the past four days and that the government had agreed to nearly all demands within its jurisdiction.

However, she noted that the students’ demand for the cancellation of the JSSC-CGL examination was linked to judicial directives and could not be decided solely by the state government.