10062026-TTC-01.qxd 6/10/2026 12:35 AM 13 ‘BJP-SAD ALLIANCE NOT CLOSED CHAPTER’ PUNJAB /thetribunechd Page 1 CHANDIGARH | GURUGRAM | JALANDHAR | BATHINDA | VOL. 146 NO. 159 | 14 PAGES | ~5.00 | REGD. NO. CHD/0006/2024-2026 ESTABLISHED IN 1881 wednesday | 10 june 2026 /thetribunechd www.tribuneindia.com NDA meet today on 12 yrs of Modi govt NEW DELHI: A meeting of the NDA to celebrate its government completing 12 years and PM Narendra Modi becoming the longest continuously serving elected PM of India will be held here on Wednesday. All constituents of the ruling NDA, besides the top leadership of the BJP , including PM Modi, are expected to participate. INSIDE MP Cong nominee’s RS papers rejected NEW DELHI: The upcoming elec- tions to three Rajya Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh took a dramatic turn on Tuesday with the nomination of Congress candidate Meenakshi Natarajan being rejected on charges of concealing information about a case. A Congress delegation is likely to meet the EC on Wednesday. INSIDE Top officials to brief Parl panel on NEET NEW DELHI: Top officials of the Health and Education ministries, National Testing Agency and National Medical Commission will brief a parliamentary panel on Wednesday over the conduct of the NEETUG re-exam on June 21. This is the third parliamentary panel before whom the top officials are appearing. — TNS Facing revolt, Didi meets Sonia ED raids six premises linked as CID raids TMC HQ in Kolkata toarrestedPbministerArora Deepkamal Kaur Political vendetta shamelessly timed: Party MP O’Brien slams move Shekhar Singh Tribune News Service New Delhi, June 9 A day after opposition parties resolved to strengthen coordination within the INDIA bloc, Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday met senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi in Delhi, signalling efforts to maintain opposition unity even as political turbulence continued to engulf the ruling party in West Bengal. The meeting at Sonia’s 10, Janpath, residence came against the backdrop of an internal revolt in the TMC and coincided with a dramatic development in Kolkata, where a team of the West Bengal CID reached the premises linked to Mamata in connection with allegations of forged signatures of party MLAs. Sources said the two leaders discussed the political situation following Monday’s INDIA bloc meeting and explored ways to strengthen coordination between the Congress and the TMC in the months ahead. The meeting also assumes significance as the TMC grapples with defections and organisational chal- CID officials arrive at the residence of former West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata on Tuesday. ANI lenges after its recent electoral setback in West Bengal. Mamata and Sonia had shared a warm exchange during the INDIA bloc meeting on Monday, with photographs released by the Congress showing the two leaders embracing each other. The Delhi meeting took place as the TMC faced a fresh challenge back home. A CID team reached 30B, Harish Chatterjee Street, the address associated with Mamata and the TMC headquarters, seeking to conduct a search in connection with the allegations relating to the forged signatures of party legislators. According to officials, the premises were being treated as a party office and therefore required examination as part of the ongoing investigation. After a brief standoff with party functionaries, the CID team entered the premises. The India asks world to hold Pak accountable as over 20 killed in PoK police crackdown Ujwal Jalali Tribune News Service Security forces fire tear gas shells at a crowd during an anti-Pakistan protest at Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on Tuesday. ANI New Delhi, June 9 India on Tuesday called on the international community to hold Pakistan accountable for its “misdeeds and abuses” in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), citing reports of severe police brutality in which over 20 persons, including security personnel, were killed and several others injured. Addressing the media, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said New Delhi had been witnessing a pattern of misinformation emanating from Pakistan aimed at diverting attention from its internal failures and alleged human development triggered an immediate political reaction from the TMC leadership, which alleged that the timing of the action was deliberate. TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien questioned the move, pointing out that the CID action unfolded at the same time Mamata was meeting Sonia in the national capital. “Political vendetta shamelessly timed,” O’Brien said in continued on page 8 Tribune News Service Jalandhar, June 9 The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday morning launched search operations at six premises across Ludhiana and Jalandhar in Punjab, Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh and the Delhi-Noida region. The action is part of an ongoing investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The premises being searched include residences and business offices linked to persons and entities under investigation in the Hampton Sky Realty Ltd case, a company linked to Punjab minister Sanjeev Arora. Arora is already behind bars. He was arrested by the ED following raids at his premises in Chandigarh last month. In Jalandhar, the ED conducted searches on the premises of Municipal Corporation contractors and brothers Inderjit Bajaj and Amit Bajaj. The Bajaj brothers have their residence and office in the New Jawahar Nagar locality. They are among the major contractors for the Municipal Corporation and several other government departments, not only in Jalandhar but also in Ludhiana, Mohali and continued on page 8 Jalandhar-based contractor brothers under scanner ED officials raid the premises of contractors Inderjit Bajaj and Amit Bajaj, both brothers, in Jalandhar on Tuesday. PHOTO: SARABJIT SINGH ‘ED party’ harassing Hindu traders in Punjab: Kejriwal Tribune News Service Jalandhar, June 9 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday alleged that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) was “harassing small Hindu traders in Punjab” while claiming that raids by the central agency were being conducted on traders in the state. In a post on X, Kejriwal wrote, “The ED party is once again conducting raids on Hindu traders in Punjab today. ZOJILA BREAKTHROUGH ‘BLAMING NEIGHBOURS OLD PAKISTAN HABIT’ India on Tuesday slammed Pakistan at the UNSC, accusing it of carrying out strikes in Afghanistan that killed civilians. “Blaming neighbours for its failures is an old Pakistani habit,” said India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Harish Parvathaneni. rights violations. “We continue to see in this context a pattern of fake news and videos emanating from Pakistan. It is a desperate attempt by Pakistan to cover up its own failings and deflect attention away from its human rights abuses,” Jaiswal said. continued on page 8 Tribune News Service New Delhi, June 9 A week after the Malviya Nagar hotel fire claimed the lives of his wife, son, daughterin-law, two granddaughters and three relatives, 78-yearold Radheshyam Aggarwal died at a Delhi hospital on Tuesday, bringing to an end a family tragedy that has wiped out three generations of a Gurugram household. Aggarwal, a resident of Sector 46 in Gurugram, was admitted to Max Hospital for the treatment of a respiratory ailment on May 30. According to hospital sources, his condition continued to deteriorate over the days and he died on Tuesday morning around 11.30 am. Family members said the Aggarwals had come to Delhi for his treatment. While he remained admitted to the hospital, his wife Hemlata, son Vivek, daughter-inlaw Tarjini and two granddaughters Jivisha and Pearl stayed at a hotel in Malviya Nagar so that they could remain close to him. On the morning of June 3, the illegally operated Flourish Inn Hotel caught fire, killing 22 people, including 13 foreign nationals. Among the dead were five members of the Aggarwal family and three of their relatives. For days after the fire, Aggarwal remained the family’s sole surviving member. continued on page 8 Sumedha Sharma Tribune News Service Gurugram, June 9 Haryana is likely to witness about 60 per cent reduction in its territorial footprint within the National Capital Region as the matter is on the agenda circulated among participating states for the June 16 meeting of the NCR Planning Board (NCRPB). Panipat, Karnal, Jind, Mahendragarh and parts of Bhiwani district are expected to bear the brunt of the proposed redrawing of boundaries. According to the agenda, the “re-delineation of the NCR boundary remains a live agenda item, with the Draft Regional Plan-2041’s boundary principles set to be for- MEETING ON JUNE 16 ■ The issue is on the agenda for the June 16 meeting of the NCR Planning Board ■ Panipat, Karnal, Mahendragarh, Jind and parts of Bhiwani district may lose NCR status 25,327 sq km Haryana area in NCR across 14 districts 10,546 sq km Proposed area under the new boundary formula mally progressed”. The draft, approved in principle at the NCRPB’s 41st meeting on October 12, 2021, proposes limiting the NCR to a contiguous circular zone of 100-km c m y b The ED party is harassing small Hindu traders.” Issuing an appeal to the trading community, the AAP convener urged them not to panic and asserted that the Punjab Government stood with them. He further said, “I appeal to all traders that there is no need to panic, the entire Punjab and the Punjab Government are with you, we will all together confront the ED party.” Kejriwal’s remark drew sharp reactions on social media continued on page 8 Haryana ‘sealed’ 109 branches to recover ~127 cr after FD racket: Kotak bank to HC Bhartesh Singh Thakur Tribune News Service Union Minister Nitin Gadkari with J&K L-G Manoj Sinha and CM Omar Abdullah during the breakthrough of Zojila Tunnel, offering an all-weather link between Ladakh and J&K, near its east portal at Minimarg in Kargil. The 13.153 km bi-directional tunnel, built at the height of 11,578 feet above sea level, will significantly improve access to Drass, Kargil and Leh, and is likely to be thrown open to the public in February 2028. PTI Last of G’gram family Haryana plans to cut NCR area Centre spent ~1.23L cr to killed in Delhi fire dies by 60%, six districts to be affected shield consumers from Manikant Mishra INDIA HIT BY EU’S FRESH RUSSIA SANCTIONS WORLD radius from Rajghat (Delhi). Currently, Haryana contributes 14 districts to the NCR—Gurugram, Faridabad, Rohtak, Sonepat, Rewari, Jhajjar, Mewat, Palwal, Panipat, Mahendragarh, Jind, Karnal, Bhiwani and Charkhi Dadri, covering a combined area of 25,327 sq km. Under the new boundary formula, that area would be slashed to just 10,546 sq km, a reduction of nearly 60 per cent, as recorded in Chapter 1 of the plan document. Interestingly, Haryana’s territorial restriction is selfimposed. The draft mentions that while Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan agreed to include tehsils even partially within the 100-km radius, “Haryana continued on page 8 fuel price hike for 78 days Aditya Rangroo Tribune News Service New Delhi, June 9 The government extended financial support of approximately Rs 1.23 lakh crore to oil marketing companies (OMCs) to cushion underrecoveries caused by the West Asia conflict and shield consumers from rising crude oil prices for 78 days. Government sources said the measure was aimed at ensuring that state-owned fuel retailers did not immediately transfer higher global oil costs to consumers. The Finance Ministry had advised OMCs to delay the pass-through of higher oil More funding not feasible, firms likely to take hike call CONG SLAMS CUT IN UJJWALA LPG REFILLS The Congress has slammed the Centre for slashing the number of subsidised LPG cylinder refills from nine to just four under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, saying the Modi government is “intoxicated on power”. prices for 78 days. Beyond that period, however, extending support would have become difficult given the continued on page 8 Chandigarh, June 9 Kotak Mahindra Bank has told the Bombay High Court that the Haryana Police sealed 109 of its branches in Haryana in connection with the Rs 150 crore bank scam in March, and that these were “de-sealed” only after Rs 127.27 crore was deposited in the Panchkula Municipal Corporation’s account. The alleged actions took place after the MC’s funds amounting to Rs 150 crore were siphoned off, and the branch manager at Kotak Mahindra Bank, Pushpinder Singh, emerged as the mastermind behind the scam. The high court had on April 6 granted interim relief to the bank, which had sought a freeze on the amount it had deposited in the MC’s account. According to the State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (SV&ACB)’s FIR dated March 24, the MC was maintaining 16 fixed deposits (FDs) with the bank’s Sector 11 branch in Panchkula. The deposits amounted to Rs 145.03 crore, with a maturity value of Rs 158.02 crore. Of these, 11 FDs worth Rs 59.58 crore matured on February 16. When MC officials approached the bank regarding the matured deposits, they were provided with statements that did not match one another or the MC’s records, particularly for the FDs, raising suspicions of large-scale irregularities. Pushpinder, along with Vikas Kaushik, a Senior Accounts continued on page 8