With Pankaj Singh, Noida’s Aghapur wants to once again become village within city

Aghapur, a tiny Gurjar-dominated hamlet in Noida, was put on the national map when Manveer Gurjar won the recently concluded season 10 of television realty show Bigg Boss. The settlement hides behind a glittering facade of buildings that house some of Delhi NCR’s famous restaurant chains. The long winding road that connects the village to Dadri Main Road is littered with garbage, and water from the overflowing drains clog its narrow lanes. Mud-brick houses with roofs of corrugated iron dot the village. It is, however, hard to miss the frenzy of construction activity in the area. A little less than a kilometre into the village, past the government-run school and dispensary, two-storey buildings painted in bright colours and grocery stores lend a touch of modernity to this rustic village.