03072026-LT-01.qxd 7/3/2026 12:56 AM Page 1 c m y b Ludhiana tribune ABHAY BAGS SILVER AT NAT’L QAZAQ KURES C’SHIP CHESS REVOLUTION TAKES ROOT IN GURDASPUR SCHOOLS KANGANA RANAUT SCHOOLS RAM KAPOOR ON LOCK UPP 2 Achievement adds another significant milestone to the athletes’ growing list of accomplishments. P3 Observers of the game believe that a chess revolution is taking shape in this once-backward district. P3 Kangana entered Lock Upp 2as Janta Ki Awaaz and called out contestant Ram Kapoor over his conduct. P4 » » » FORECAST PARTLY CLOUDY MAX 33°C | MIN 25°C YESTERDAY MAX 32°C | MIN 24°C SUNSET FRIDAY 7.28 PM SUNRISE SATURDAY 5:25 AM FRIDAY | 3 JULY 2026 | LUDHIANA ‘Monsoon war room’ set up to monitor city 24x7 via CCTVs Tribune News Service DEATH OF MAN, PARAMOUR IN KHANNA Hotel owner to faceFIR for renting room sans ID proof Nikhil Bhardwaj Motorists navigate the waterlogged Hambran Road after the rainfall, on Thursday. TRIBUNE PHOTOS: HIMANSHU MAHAJAN Season’s 1st rain exposes MC’s lack of preparedness Major portion of City Centre road caves in; waterlogging witnessed in many areas Shivani Bhakoo Tribune News Service Ludhiana, July 2 One spell of rainfall lasting about three-four hours late on Wednesday night not only exposed the preparedness of the Municipal Corporation authorities but also brought misery to residents in different parts of the city. While a major portion of the City Centre road in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar caved in, residents of Chander Nagar got contaminated water supply. Dairy owners and residents in areas around Haibowal also faced a tough time as rainwater entered their premises in the wee hours. Residents were seen making efforts to to drain out water while the authorities seemed to be in a deep slumber. The rain began around midnight and continued for over three hours, leaving residents in many localities struggling due to its aftermath. RTI activist Arvind Sharma said the road in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar under the 475 Acre Scheme was badly damaged and caved in following the rain. Sharma pointed out that it was the third time the road had been damaged, putting several lives at risk. “It has been the first rainfall of the monsoon and everything has been exposed,” he rued. At the same time, residents The portion of the City Centre road that caved in; and (below) waterlogging in the Dairy Complex after rainfall. of Chander Nagar got contaminated water supply around 5.30 am on Thursday. A resident, Amarjeet Singh, complained that foul-smelling sewer-mixed water was supplied in the area. “It poses a serious health risk to our families. Whenever we bring the issue to the notice of the MC, it says the problem lies within our houses. But if that is the case, we would have been getting contaminated water all the time. The problem arises only after rains,” he said. Harnek Singh, a dairy owner in Haibowal, said the excessive water entering their premises made it diffi- 506 kids missing since 2020, reveals RTI info Nikhil Bhardwaj Tribune News Service Ludhiana, July 2 As many as 506 children went missing and 62 were kidnapped in Ludhiana since 2020 while 294 missing and 58 abducted children were recovered by the police. As many as 212 missing and four kidnapped children are still to be traced. It has been revealed in the RTI on the application of activist Rohit Sabharwal. As per the RTI reply by the Ludhiana Police Commissionerate, 62 children were kidnapped since 2020 till date, of which 58 were recovered while four were yet to be traced. The activist said according to information given by the RTI cell of the Ludhiana police, the police could not find 41.9 per cent of the missing children in the six-and-a- 294 OF THE MISSING FOUND 58 OF 62 KIDNAPPED TRACED half years while the police acted smart and 94 per cent kidnapped children were already recovered. The RTI activist had obtained reports from 2020 to 2026, which state that the highest number of 149 children went missing in 2025, of them, 120 were found and 29 remain untraced. In 2024, 74 children went missing, of them 35 remained untraced by the police. In 2023, 52 children gone missing and 38 remain missing. Similarly, in 2022, 69 children went missing, of them 24 are still missing. Meanwhile, in 2021, 81 children went missing, of them 33 are still missing. In 2020, a total of 52 children went missing, of them 28 remain unaccounted for by police. The Chairperson of Punjab State Commission for Women had earlier sought a report from the Ludhiana police about the 11 missing girls in May. Though the police had already submitted a report but the panel had asked for a revised report. Of the 11, four were already recovered and a probe found that the girls were not abducted rather they left home on their own. cult to manage animals and carry out milching. “There is no proper drainage system and sewers are choked. It was the first rain of the monsoon season and look at the condition of roads and waterlogging,” he added. In early morning hours, tyres of a bus and later of a truck got stuck on the muddy Hambran Road, drivers had to struggle to move their vehicle from the road. The driver of the truck complained that roads were dug and no traffic diversion signals were given to avoid particular roads and due to the same vehicles were getting stuck on muddy roads. Meanwhile, a video of Mayor Inderjit Kaur visiting areas along the Buddha Nullah late on Wednesday night has gone viral on social media. She was seen assessing the water level in the nullah and had reportedly directed MC staff to remain alert and stay in the field to monitor the situation. Gurdeep Singh Gosha, a BJP leader, while taking a dig at the sorry state of affairs in the city following the first spell of rain of the season made a video of the Giaspura area in the Ludhiana South constituency and asked residents not to visit hills or other tourist spots for off-roading or to see lakes as all these could be witnessed in the city after a single spell of rain. Business partner duped of 2 kg gold by man, son Tribune News Service Ludhiana, July 2 A major fraud case has come to light in the city’s prominent Sarafa Bazaar, where two persons, a man and his son, allegedly duped their partner in the gold business of 2 kg of gold. The suspects, Jatinderpal and his son Rahul Vashisht, who ran RN Jewellers in partnership with the complainant, were booked by Police Division 1 on the charges of criminal breach of trust and cheating. The complainant, Navneet Kumar, told the police that Jatinderpal and Rahul Vashisht gained his trust by promising handsome profits in the gold business. Believing them, he entered into a partnership with them under the name of RN Jewellers in continued on page 2 c m y b Ludhiana, July 2 In a major push to ensure prompt action and mitigate public inconvenience during the monsoon season, Punjab Local Government Minister Harjot Singh Bains said the Municipal Corporation, Ludhiana, has set up ‘Monsoon war room’, a tech-enabled control centre, to monitor the city 24x7 through 1,700 CCTV cameras. While inspecting the facility set up at the Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC) at MC’s Zone D office in Sarabha Nagar on Thursday, Bains said the war room live-streams HD footage from flood-prone intersections, low-lying colonies and vulnerable drains. He said the system would identify inundation within seconds and helps map floods, enabling teams to be deployed to exact locations, cutting response time from hours to minutes. After reviewing the realtime analytics, the minister said a dedicated monsoon helpline number would also be launched soon. Citizens can call the helpline to report waterlogging, blocked drains or overflowing nullahs and continued on page 2 Tribune News Service Ludhiana, July 2 A day after a man and his paramour were found dead in a room of Greenland Hotel in Khanna under mysterious circumstances, the preliminary investigation of the police had found that the man had first shot his paramour dead and then he died by suicide by shooting himself, the police have now registered a murder case against the deceased man for killing the woman. The deceased were identified as Manjit Singh from Makhu Ferozepur and Harpreet Kaur from Tarn Taran. According to the police, both victims, who were distant relatives, were married. Harpreet has two children, while Manjeet has an eight-year-old son. During investigation, the police recovered the woman’s phone, which revealed that she was married to Tejinder Singh eight years ago. Harpreet’s maternal uncle’s daughter stays in Khanna and Manjit was her maternal uncle’s son. He frequently visited Khanna. Both were between 25 and 30 years of age. They were in a relationship. Inside the hotel room, the woman’s body was found on the bed while the man’s body was The hotel where the man and his paramour were found dead. FILE found lying on the floor near the bed. Police probe has found that Manjit owned Eknoor Dhaba at Libra in Khanna. SSP Khanna, Darpan , Ahluwalia, said since the deceased man had committed a murder by killing his paramour, he was booked on murder charge. A 9mm unlicensed weapon was used in the crime and the same was also seized by the police. Now, further investigation would be conducted how the man got the illegal weapon. She said when the police scanned CCTV cameras, besides the deceased, a man, Bunty, was seen accompanying them to the hotel. He convinced hotel staff to give room to them without taking any identity proof. Denying rumours that Bunty had posed himself as a policeman to procure a room for them without submitting any identity proof, the SSP said Bunty was a frequent visitor to the dhaba of Manjit. Hence, the former dropped the couple to the hotel in a Haryana registration number taxi and left the spot. Afterwards, there was no movement seen outside the room for around nine hours. Neither of them called the reception or requested any service. Hotel staff became suspicious when there was no activity for so long. They knocked on the door several times but got no response, After which they called the police. The police said the owner of hotel would face an FIR for giving the room to the victims without taking any identity proof. The hotel committed a major violation and a case would be registered after procuring orders from the DC, Ludhiana.