22072025-CT-01.qxd 7/22/2025 12:41 AM Page 1 c m y b Chandigarh tribune PGI NURSES HOLD PROTEST OVER PROMOTIONS, STAFF SHORTAGE REMAINING LEGACY WASTE AT DADUMAJRA TO VANISH SOON BOX OFFICE COLLECTION OF SAIYAARA CROSSES ~100 CR PGI nursing staff held a protest on Monday, pressing for urgent admn action on their demands . P3 The city will be a zero landfill model as bioremediation of the legacy waste nearing completion at the dump. P3 Saiyaara is in the company of those rare gems which keep alive the hysteria we associate with Bollywood. P4 » » CLOUDY, RAIN MAX 28°C | MIN 26°C YESTERDAY MAX 27.7°C | MIN 26.8°C SUNSET TUESDAY 7.22 PM SUNRISE WEDNESDAY 5:36 AM » TUESDAY | 22 JULY 2025 | CHANDIGARH FORECAST /THETRIBUNECHD FACEBOOK/CHANDIGARHTRIBUNE Yellow alert for rain till Thursday 40-mm downpour causes severe waterlogging, traffic jams in tricity Tribune News Service WHAT’S ON APNI MANDI Chandigarh: Sectors 29 and 56, and Dhanas Panchkula: Sector 15 Mohali: Sectors 68 and 71 Please send information about events in tricity at: whatson@tribunemail.com INBRIEF MAN KILLED BY DERA MEN Mohali: A migrant labourer was stabbed to death by three members of a dera near Miyanpur village in New Chandigarh Monday morning. Sources said the worker, who was in an inebriated state, started pelting stones at the dera members, after which an altercation took place. Three members of the dera stabbed him with sharp weapons. The police reached the spot around 11 am and nabbed the assailants. TNS Chandigarh, July 21 The ongoing wet spell with heavy rainfall and thunderstorms is likely to continue in Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana till Thursday. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Monday issued a yellow alert for heavy rain in the region, including Chandigarh, for the next three days. The city received 40-mm downpour during the past 24 hours, which was second highest in the region after 96mm rainfall recorded at Hoshiarpur. The rain led to waterlogging at various low-lying areas, including several roads and busy junctions, throwing the normal life out of gear. In the absence of any traffic cops, most of the major roads and junctions witnessed traffic chaos and massive jams during the day, especially in the morning and afternoon hours. The Tribune Chowk, which is the busiest junctions of the city, was the worst-hit with the waterlogged roads on all sides led to traffic jams stretching upto 2-3 km. “Whenever and wherever there is any traffic chaos or disruption, you will not find any cops, otherwise they are seen The Ghaggar river in spate on Monday. PHOTO: RAVI KUMAR PAGE 2 Snarl-ups choke roads in Zirakpur Commuters stuck in a long traffic jam on the waterlogged Chandigarh-Ambala highway in Zirakpur on Monday. PHOTO: RAVI KUMAR everywhere looking to catch violators,” quipped Suresh Kumar, who remained stuck in the traffic jam at the GMCH-32 roundabout for over half-anhour in the morning. Another harried commuter, Aakriti Sood complained that despite repeated calls to the police helpline and even posting alerts on the traffic police’s social media handles, no cop was seen regulating traffic at the roads and junctions choked with stranded vehicles. “I had an appointment with a GMCH-32 doctor at 9:30 am. But due to the massive jam, I BKI operative held after brief encounter CIA in-charge Harminder Singh Saini said, “The suspect is already booked in four case of extortion and Arms Act. He has spent time in jail also.” Tribune News Service Mohali, July 21 The police arrested Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) operative Gurpreet Singh, alias Gopi, a native of Mandi Gobindgarh, after a brief shootout near the Chapparchiri road this morning. He was allegedly wanted for an attempt to extort Rs 2 crore from a Sector 82 realtor on July 10. The police said when cops cornered the suspect, he tried to flee on his bike and fell down. When the cops asked him to surrender, he fired four rounds at them, two of which hit the police vehicle. The police team fired two rounds into the air to warn Gopi, but he did not relent. In the retaliatory fire, he was shot in the left leg. He was taken to a hospital. Gopi’s three accomplices were arrested earlier in the morning. The police said two uniden- Ambala shootout A video grab of injured BKI operative being arrested after encounter near Chapperchiri village in Mohali on Monday. tified youths had opened fire at the office of the realtor and made a threat call demanding Rs 2 crore from him. The suspects are part of an extortion nexus run by terrorists. Yesterday, the police had busted a BKI terror module being operated by foreignbased handlers Maninder Billa and Manu Agwan, with the arrest of its three mem- bers. They were identified as Sandeep Singh of Badshahpur, Harpreet Singh of Harchandpura and Harmanpreet Singh of Gurdialpura in Patiala district. They were involved in grenade attacks on the police posts at Badshahpur in Patiala and Ajimgarh in Haryana. Their questioning led the police to Gopi. Ambala: A team of CIA-1 unit of the local police nabbed a suspect involved in firing incidents, after a brief shootout today. Aman, a resident of Yamunanagar, suffered a bullet injury in his left leg and was taken to the Civil Hospital, Ambala City. The CIA-1 in-charge, Harjinder Singh, said following a tip-off, a team cornered Aman, who was on a twowheeler, in the Mullana area. He shot multiple rounds at the police party and in the retaliatory fire, he was shot in the leg. The suspect was involved in firing incidents near the residences of a plywood merchant and a clothes trader in Yamunanagar on July 12. remained stuck on the road till 10 am,” rued Kartik Sharma. Similarly, the office goers and others faced inconvenience due to the traffic chaos. Meanwhile, maximum temperature in Chandigarh was recorded at 27.7° Celsius with a fall of 6.5 degrees in the past 24 hours and departure of 6.1 degrees from normal. The minimum temperature was 26.8° Celsius with a fall of 1.5 degrees in the past 24 hours. Mohali and Panchkula also experienced 20mm and 22mm rainfall during the past 24 hours. Zirakpur, July 21 Long traffic snarls were witnessed in Zirakpur today as persistent rain led to waterlogging on roads since morning. The Chandigarh-Ambala national highway remained clogged with stranded vehicles till late in the afternoon. The Mubarikpur-Ramgarh road was swamped with rainwater at many places. Office goers and school bus drivers complained that they reached late almost by an hour due to traffic jams. “The monsoon has created a mess in Zirakpur and Dera Bassi as pools of stagnant water can be seen till late in the evening,” said Jyoti Bhargava, a schoolteacher in Zirakpur. Residents slammed the Zirakpur Municipal Council and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for failing to resolve the issue of waterlogging on the highway despite spending crores of rupees. Many inner roads of Sector 70, Sector 71 and Mataur were out of bounds for pedestrians as these remained waterlogged throughout the day. Nayagaon and Kharar areas too witnessed heavy waterlogging. Nayagaon residents said the condition of roads is pathetic here as the laying of sewer lines is going on at a snail’s pace. In Kharar, severe waterlogging was witnessed on the national highway near Balongi and Nirvana Greens society. — TNS Car thief lands Postal services suspended in region in police net No transactions at all 56 post offices in Chd division Chandigarh, July 21 The police have arrested a vehicle thief and recovered five stolen vehicles from him. Yadvinder Ahuja, a resident of Sector 43, had reported that his Honda City parked outside his residence was stolen on July 14. At a naka set up outside the ISBT, Sector 43, on Sunday, the police stopped a car matching the stolen vehicle’s description. It was being driven by Balwinder Singh (28), a resident of Mehroli village, Mohali. He was arrested immediately. During interrogation, Balwinder confessed to more vehicle thefts. The police recovered another stolen car, a scooter, and two motorcycles, which were stolen from Nayagaon, Dadu Majra and Maloya. He already faces theft and an excise-related cases registered against him in Kurali. He was produced before the court and sent to judicial custody. — TNS Tribune News Service Chandigarh, July 21 Postal services remained suspended in the region on Monday, leaving the customers in the lurch. No transactions were conducted in at least 165 post offices across Chandigarh, Jalandhar and Ludhiana divisions throughout the day. Attributing the suspension to major technical upgrade, the senior postal authorities have claimed that normal services will be restored from Tuesday. Confirming the daylong outage, the Director Postal Services (Headquarters) in Chandigarh, Padmagandha Mishra, told The Tribune that the Department of Posts was in the process of rolling out the next generation APT application IT2.0, a major leap towards digital excellence under which the post offices are undergoing a major technical upgrade. As part of this transformative initiative, the upgraded system will be implemented across all post offices in the region. “To enable a seamless and secure transition to this advanced digital platform, a planned downtime was scheduled for today following which no public transactions were carried out at the post offices,” she said, while informing that this temporary suspension of services was necessary to facilitate data migration, system validations and configuration processes, ensuring that the new system goes live smoothly and efficiently. Mishra disclosed that the APT application was designed to offer an enhanced user experience, faster service delivery and a more customer-friendly interface, reflecting the department’s commitment to deliver smarter, efficient and futureready postal operations. The DPS added that August 5 will also be observed as a no transaction day for the final rollout of the technical upgrade. Meanwhile, the customers faced a harrowing time due to the suspension of postal services at all 56 post offices in Chandigarh division. In the absence of any prior notice of shutdown, the customers kept visiting one post office after another, but to no avail. “I have visited three post offices to book a parcel of rakhis to my brother settled abroad, but the services were suspended at all places,” rued a local resident, Radha Singh. A few counters that were working at the GPO-17 witnessed a huge rush of customers. The majority of them failed to get their turn for availing of various services during the working hours. Director of real estate 88-year-old retired DIG shows city way to cleanliness firm, officials booked Pulls rehri, picks trash every day in Sector 49 Ramkrishan Upadhyay Tribune News Service Tribune News Service Mohali, July 21 The police have booked director of Chandigarh Royale City Promoters Private Limited Anurag Minda for cheating, criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy in a case related to development of a colony in Karala village of Dera Bassi on 77.87 acres. Besides, company officials Liaqat Ali, Daljeet Singh and Sumit Bansal have also been booked. On a statement of the Senior Accounts Officer, Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA), a case under Sections 406, 420 and 120-B of the IPC was registered against them at the Phase 8 police station on July 19. On June 19, the GMADA official had written to the Mohali SSP for initiating prosecution proceedings against the MD and directors of M/S Chandigarh Royale City Promoters Private Limited as well as proprietor. The officials stated that the promoter failed to timely deposit external development charges and other levies totalling Rs 1,236.04 lakh. “All cheques submitted by the proprietor in 2020 were dishonoured and complaints were filed against all directors and authorised signatories of M/S Chandigarh Royale City Private Limited under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881,” read the FIR. Chandigarh, July 21 Inder Jit Singh Sidhu, an 88year-old retired IPS officer, begins his morning at 6. As most of the elders get ready to step out for a walk, Sidhu takes a rehri around Sector 49, collecting litter. He makes sure the area remains clean, repeating this every day, without fail. Sidhu superannuated from the Punjab Police in 1996 as DIG and now lives in the IAS-IPS Officers’ Cooperative Society in Sector 49. Living here for many years, seeing garbage littered day in, day out would disgust him. He said he’s even complained to the authorities multiple times, but to no avail. Finally, he decided to take it upon himself. He says there’s no shame in doing such work, adding that cleanliness is next to godliness. The people around him con- Inderjit Singh pulls a rehri laden with garbage in Sector 49, Chandigarh. sidered him mad. But their comments never deterred him. He takes the rehris of the sani- c m y b tary workers when they lie unused, fills them and drops the litter at the designated spots. And now, even the residents are supporting him. Sidhu said he was not hap- py with the ‘low rank’ Chandigarh got in the Swachh Survekshan, arguing that the city which is known to be the City Beautiful must climb to the top place of the podium. He said though his contribution to the cleanliness of the city was minimal he was doing as much as his body allowed. Firm in his resolve, he said he was not concerned about other people’s opinion of him, adding he would further his endeavour for the betterment of the city till his last breath. His kin voice strong support. He believes if every citizen were to pitch in to keep the city clean, Chandigarh would achieve that coveted top spot. The work gives him satisfaction. He said pockets of the city were infested by the so-called Congress grass, and there were broken branches lying around at every corner, posing a safety hazard. A resident of the area said he had not seen such a committed individual. He added that after watching the old man working to keep the area clean, he demanded the Municipal Corporation to make him the city’s ambassador of the Swachhta Abhiyan The administration must support Sidhuji and recognise his work, another resident said. Clearly, with his undying resolve, Sidhu is showing the right path to the younger generations. At the time Chandigarh is celebrating securing the second position in the Super Swachh League, cities under the 3 to 10 lakh population category, in the prestigious Swachh Survekshan 2024–25, residents and authorities seem to have forgotten the contribution of such Samaritans.