29072026-JTR-01.qxd 7/28/2026 10:36 PM Page 1 c m y b Jalandhar tribune MUNICIPAL CORPORATION STAFF STRIKE ENTERS DAY 2 ARYAN FIGHTERS ARENA KARATEKAS WIN 20 MEDALS SHORA SIDDIQUI SHINES ON STAGE WITH IMPACTFUL PERFORMANCE Demonstrators vowed to intensify their agitation if their demands remained unaddressed. P2 Young karate players delivered an impressive performance at the 20th Nat’l Karate Championship-2026.P3 Nawazuddin's daughter, Shora Siddiqui, has emerged as one of the biggest highlights of the play, Naqaab. P4 » » FORECAST RAINY MAX 32°C | MIN 27°C YESTERDAY MAX 33°C | MIN 29°C SUNSET WEDNESDAY 7.25 PM SUNRISE THURSDAY 5:42 AM » WEDNESDAY | 29 JULY 2026 | JALANDHAR HEALTH & WELLNESS The Tribune has started a Q and A column to address your health-related queries. Please mail your questions (not exceeding 40 words) at healthandwellness@tribunemail.com. The Tribune’s panel of doctors will answer all your healthrelated concerns. INBRIEF MAN BOOKED FOR EXPLOITATION Phagwara: The Goraya police have registered a case against a man on charges of sexual exploitation and criminal intimidation following a complaint by a 45-year-old woman. The complainant, a resident of Dheedsa village near Goraya, alleged that Gurdayal Ram of Dhuleeta village threatened to upload her objectionable photographs on social media and used the threats to force her into a physical relationship against her will. Based on her complaint, the police have registered a case. The accused is absconding, and efforts are underway to arrest him. OC BIKER DIES IN HIT-AND-RUN Phagwara: The Goraya police have registered a case against a vehicle driver in connection with the death of a motorcyclist in a hit-and-run accident near Goraya. The case was registered on the complaint of Ugrasen Tiwari, resident of Jamalpur. In his complaint, Tiwari stated that his son Roshan Tiwari was travelling on his motorcycle from Jalandhar to Ludhiana. When he reached near Goraya, his motorcycle was allegedly hit by an unidentified vehicle. Roshan sustained fatal injuries in the accident and died. The police said efforts are underway to identify the vehicle and driver. OC WOMAN’S MURDER: IN-LAWS BOOKED Phagwara: The Lohian police have registered a murder case against a man and his mother following an inquiry into the alleged death of a married woman. A case was registered on the complaint of Santokh Singh, a resident of Guru Nanak Colony, Amritsar. Santokh Singh alleged that his daughter Harjinder Kaur was murdered by her in-laws. He had submitted a complaint to the SSP, Jalandhar Rural, seeking action against his daughter's in-laws. The accused have been booked. OC VILLAGER HELD FOR MURDER Phagwara: The Mehatpur police have arrested a miscreant on the charge of murder. The accused has been identified as Balwant Singh of Bute Dian Chhana village and his six accomplices. Amar Kaur, sarpanch of the village, had complained to the police that the accused waylaid her and her husband and attacked them with sharp-edged weapons and injured them seriously. She died during treatment. oc MAN BOOKED FOR BIKE THEFT Phagwara: The Nakodar police have booked an unidentified person on the charge of stealing a motorcycle. Pardeep Kumar of Mohalla Bogran, Nakodar, complained to the police that a person stole his motorcycle on July 25. oc AAP names Dhir as halqa Contractual linemen back to work after 3-day strike in-charge of city north Protest by PSPCL outsourced employees continues Rishika Kriti Tribune News Service Jalandhar Mayor replaces Dinesh Dhall as party continues organisational reshuffle in Doaba ahead of polls Deepkamal Kaur Tribune News Service Jalandhar, July 28 Continuing its organisational reshuffle in Doaba ahead of the next electoral cycle, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has replaced its fourth halqa incharge in the region in nearly two months. The latest change comes in Jalandhar North, where the party has reposed faith in Jalandhar Mayor Vaneet Dhir, replacing Dinesh Dhall, who had held the post for the past nearly four-and-a-half years. Dhall had contested the 2022 Assembly elections from Jalandhar North but finished third despite the AAP wave in Punjab. The latest move is being seen as part of the party’s strategy to give Dhir adequate time to strengthen his presence in the constituency ahead of the next Assembly elections. Dhir, who assumed office as Jalandhar Mayor in January 2025, is a former BJP leader, who switched to AAP In con. trast, Dhall had joined AAP from the Congress and was once considered a close confidant of Kapurthala MLA Rana Gurjeet Singh before Mayor Vaneet Dhir AAP leader Dinesh Dhall RECENT CHANGES ■ The Jalandhar North reshuffle is the latest in a series of organisational changes undertaken by AAP in Doaba. ■ In Phagwara, the party replaced Harji Mann with sitting Hoshiarpur MP Dr Raj Kumar Chabbewal. ■ In Phillaur, Principal Prem Kumar was replaced by Harjot Kaur Lohtia, who hails from Banga. ■ Similarly, in Nawanshahr, Robby Kang was appointed in place of Lalit Mohan Pathak. changing political allegiance. Within the party, Dhir is regarded as being close to Jalandhar Central AAP halqa incharge Nitin Kohli, with the two frequently sharing the stage at political and public events. His wife Shweta Dhir, who served as a BJP councillor during the previous Municipal Corporation term, has also been actively involved in AAP’s political and social outreach after the family’s shift to the ruling party. Minutes after the announcement, congratulatory messages began pouring in for Dhir from party workers and supporters. In a display of organisational discipline, outgoing halqa in-charge Dinesh Dhall also released a video congratulating his successor. “I wish Vaneet Dhir all the best. I have served the party with dedication and will continue to do so. During my tenure, I pursued several development projects for the Assembly segment, including road infrastructure and the Burlton Park project. Thankfully, those works are now taking shape,” Dhall said. The Jalandhar North reshuffle is the latest in a series of organisational changes undertaken by AAP in Doaba. In Phagwara, the party replaced Harji Mann with sitting Hoshiarpur MP Dr Raj Kumar Chabbewal. In Phillaur, Principal Prem Kumar was replaced by Harjot Kaur Lohtia, who hails from Banga. Similarly, in Nawanshahr, Robby Kang was appointed in place of Lalit Mohan Pathak. Interestingly, none of the replaced leaders has shown any signs of dissent so far. Instead, they have remained active within the party and continue to engage with local residents and workers, in some cases even more actively than before. State SC panel asks School Education Dept to halt lecturers’ recruitment Tribune News Service Jalandhar, July 28 The Punjab State Scheduled Castes Commission has directed the School Education Department to put on hold the next stages of recruitment of 1,013 school lecturers, citing a lack of clarity over the roster registers used for implementing the reservation policy. The commission has also sought an Action Taken Report from the department by August 3. The issue has come to the fore after the department submitted records in response to information sought by the commission regarding the Commission seeks Action Taken Report by August 3 implementation of the reservation policy in the lecturer cadre for which recruitment had been advertised. The Directorate of Education Recruitment, Punjab, on June 25 invited applications for 1,013 lecturer posts comprising 829 fresh vacancies and 184 backlog vacancies in various subjects. Soon after the advertisement was issued, concerns were raised that it did not clearly specify the subjectwise and category-wise distribution of vacancies reserved for the SC and BC. The issue subsequently came under the commission’s scrutiny. The commission took up the matter on its own and held its first hearing on July 3, during which department officials appeared before it. Later, the department was directed to submit a detailed report at the hearing scheduled for July 14. Commission chairman Jasvir Singh Garhi said in response to the information sought by the commission, the department submitted records through a letter dated July 14. However, several deficiencies were found in the records. He said the selection lists for direct recruitment in the cadre concerned from 1990 to 2025, along with merit marks of the selected candidates, had not been provided. In its response, the department had stated to the commission that since the records were old, it would take around two months to compile them, he added. Education Secretary Sonali Giri said, "We are legally examining the commission's recommendation as it involves 40 years of data. Since it is a recommendatory order, we are also examining it at the administrative level." Jalandhar, July 28 Contractual linemen engaged as Complaint Handling Bike (CHB) and Complaint Handling Wagon (CHW) staff resumed duties on Tuesday afternoon after a three-day strike. However, outsourced employees, posted at the PSPCL’s Nodal Complaint Centres, Suvidha Centres, metering labs and stores, continue their indefinite strike over their demand for direct contracts with the department. The CHB and CHW workers went on strike on Saturday under the banner of the Coordination Committee of Powercom and Transco Contractual Workers Union. Around 5,500 workers across Punjab, including 1,905 from the Doaba region, had participated in the protest, slowing fault repairs and restoration of electricity supply in several areas. According to PSPCL officials, these workers form the backbone of the power department’s field operations. They attend electricity supply and outage-related complaints registered on the 1912 helpline and also responsible for fault rectification on low and high tension power lines. Balihar Singh, state president of the union, said, “We have decided to defer our strike after receiving a call for a Jalandhar, July 28 The Democratic Teachers’ Front (DTF) flagged the “continued neglect” of school sports, alleging that the lack of a dedicated budget, long pending vacancies and inadequate funding are affecting sports activities in government schools and hampering the development of young athletes. DTF state president Vikram Dev Singh and general secretary Mohinder Kaurianwali said the School Education Department does not earmark a separate budget for school sports. They claimed that since sports fee cannot be collected from students of Classes I to VIII under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, school sports largely depend on the sports fund collected from students of Classes IX to XII. The union leaders also said many private schools are not depositing sports funds due to an ongoing court case, leaving school sports short of funds. They urged the government to bridge the gap by allocating a dedicated budget. The DTF asserted that only 15 per cent of the sports fund collected from Classes IX to XII is earmarked for primary level sports. It said the department allocates Rs 2,000 for centre-level games, Rs 5,000 for block level and Rs 20,000 for district level competitions which is inadequate, forcing teachers in some places to contribute money to organise sports events. The organisation also claimed that while the government spends nearly Rs 13 Govt School students play a kabaddi match in Jalandhar. FILE crore on “Khedan Watan Punjab Dian”, less than Rs 3 crore is spent on school sports. It alleged that Punjab’s performance in the National School Games has declined over the past five to six years, with the state dropping to the 13th position last year. Painting a grim picture of c m y b school sports, the DTF further said the post of Deputy Director (Sports) is vacant since long, affecting planning and administration of school sports. Adding to the concerns, the posts of physical education teachers and lecturers are also vacant in several schools. meeting with Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema scheduled for Wednesday morning.” “We joined the protest in solidarity with the regular employees and also the outsourced employees working at the PSPCL’s Nodal Complaint Centres and Suvidha Centres. While the regular employees Fatal combination Even as the traffic police focus on issuing online challans, malfunctioning traffic lights at Maqsudan Chowk continue to pose a hazard on Tuesday, with all signals blinking at the same time in Jalandhar on Tuesday. TRIBUNE PHOTO: SARABJIT SINGH DTF flags ‘neglect’ of school sports, seeks budget Tribune News Service A lineman on duty after three days of strike. A TRIBUNE PHOTO withdrew their strike on Monday after receiving written assurances on their demands, our issues remain unresolved, prompting us to continue our strike,” he said. The union is demanding that outsourced workers be brought under direct contract with the department. It is also seeking compensation for the families of CHB workers who were electrocuted during service. Balihar Singh said although the department initiated the process of bringing CHB workers under direct contract in May, several issues remain unresolved. “Many workers are yet to receive employee IDs, while offer letters of some employees are still pending due to discrepancies in their records. The department had promised to complete document verification, medical tests and issue offer letters within 21 days but even after nearly two months, many workers are still waiting,” he said. PSPCL officials said electricity fault rectification and restoration work improved after the CHB workers resumed duty. However, since outsourced employees at Nodal Complaint Centres remain on strike, many complaints resolved in the field are not being closed on the 1912 system and continue to reflect as pending. Mahinder Kaurianwali, general secretary of the DTF said , the department had placed physical education teacher and lecturer posts in the “dying cadre”. As a result, these posts are not being filled after teachers retire or are transferred, leading to a gradual decline in the number of physical education teachers in government schools. The DTF demanded immediate appointment of a Deputy Director (Sports), filling of vacant physical education teacher and lecturer posts, higher funding for sports infrastructure and equipment, release of pending prize money and incentives for National School Games participants, and a comprehensive policy for the development of school sports. MP Seechewal seeks withdrawal of security cover PHAGWARA, JULY 28 Rajya Sabha MP Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal has written to DGP Gaurav Yadav, requesting him that six security persons deployed for his protection be withdrawn and instead posted at police stations of Lohian Khas in Jalandhar district and Sultanpur Lodhi in Kapurthala district to strengthen public safety. In his letter, Seechewal expressed concern over the increasing incidents of theft, robbery and drug-related crimes in Lohian and along the sacred Kali Bein at Sultanpur Lodhi. He stated that three of the six security personnel assigned to him should be transferred at Lohian Khas Police Station and the remaining three at Sultanpur Lodhi Police Station, where they could serve the public more effectively. The MP said he firmly believes that people require security more than he does. Seechewal recalled that he had previously written to the Punjab Police when the Malsian Police Chowki was facing an acute staff shortage. Copies of the letter have also been forwarded to Governor Gulab Chand Kataria, CM Bhagwant Mann, the DCs of Jalandhar and Kapurthala, and the SSPs of both districts. — OC