24082026-TTB-01.qxd 8/24/2026 12:22 AM Page 1 13 CHANDIGARH | GURUGRAM | JALANDHAR | BATHINDA | VOL. 146 NO. 233 | 16 PAGES | ~5.00 | REGD. NO. CHD/0006/2024-2026 ESTABLISHED IN 1881  DELHI SANCTIONS THREATENED BY ‘DESPERATE’ US WILL FAIL, CLAIMS IRAN WORLD /thetribunechd HEAVY RAIN THROWS NORMAL LIFE OUT OF GEAR IN JAMMU J&K MINING LAW COMES INTO FORCE AMID OPPN OUTCRY NATION PADIKKAL HITS SECOND TON IN A ROW VS SL IN SECOND TEST SPORT monday | 24 august 2026 /thetribunechd www.tribuneindia.com Remarks on Sajjan distorted: Rohtak MP amid call for ouster Doval heads to China Congseesgovt’sdelimitation push in LS prorogation delay for talks with Wang Yi Bhartesh Singh Thakur Dialogue on boundary issue ahead of Xi’s India visit Rinku Behera Ajay Banerjee New Delhi, August 23 Ten days after the Lok Sabha was adjourned sine die, the continued absence of any announcement on its prorogation has opened a fresh political front, with the Congress questioning whether the delay was linked to a possible government effort to marshal the numbers needed to push through a constitutional amendment Bill on delimitation. Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Sunday questioned the “abnormal delay” in proroguing the Lower House and asked whether Union Home Minister Amit Shah was still attempting to cobble together the “tainted” two-thirds majority required to pass a constitutional amendment on delimitation in a possible special session of Parliament. In a post on X, Jairam said the gap between “adjournment sine die” and prorogation of the Lok Sabha was generally two to four days, although there had been instances when both had taken place the same day. “Ten days have gone by since this Tribune News Service Chandigarh, August 23 Days after allegedly describing 1984 riots convict Sajjan Kumar as a “role model” and his death as an “irreparable loss”, Congress MP from Rohtak Deepender Hooda on Sunday said his statement had been “distorted and presented out of context”. Meanwhile, former Haryana Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Sharma demanded Deepender’s removal from the Congress Working Committee (CWC). In an email to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sharma said remarks by Deepender, a permanent invitee to the CWC, had sent “shock waves” through the Sikh community and could hurt the Congress politically, particularly ahead of the Punjab elections. Sharma said the Congress had already “disassociated itself completely” from Sajjan Kumar and urged Kharge to remove Deepender from the CWC to demonstrate the party’s bona fides and “heal the wounds” reopened by the remarks. Sharma is the first Haryana Congress leader to publicly criticise Deepender IED concealed in tiffin box found in Chandigarh Chandigarh, August 23 The UT police recovered an inactive improvised explosive device (IED), concealed in a tiffin box inside a bag, from a forest area near the Sector 43 ISBT today. Three suspects have been arrested in connection with the recovery, police sources said. The device contained 5-kg gelatin sticks, added the sources. Two of the suspects hail from Tarn Taran district, while one is from Amritsar. A weapon was also reportedly recovered from the bag. Acting on a tip-off, the police launched a search operation in the area and spotted the unattended bag lying inside the forested patch. — TNS ConvictinGudiya casegetslifeterm forSirmaurrape Satya Prakash Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 23 Reversing a Himachal Pradesh High Court verdict, the Supreme Court has sentenced Anil Kumar, alias Nilu — convicted of raping and attempting to kill a woman under the Pachhad police station in Sirmaur district of the state in 2015 — to life imprisonment. Asks if Shah is still looking for two-thirds majority for Bill Tribune News Service Rohtak MP Deepender Hooda. over the issue after leaders of AAP BJP and the SAD, , besides the Punjab Congress, sought clarification from the central leadership. Sajjan Kumar was serving two life terms for his role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Deepender, meanwhile, said an English word was being attributed to him that he had “never uttered” and never intended to convey. “I had absolutely no intention of hurting any of our brothers. I could never even imagine causing hurt to our brothers in the Sikh community,” he said, adding that if anyone’s feelings had been hurt, he expressed his regret. Describing the Sikh community as “family”, Deepender said its sacrifices for the nation could never be forgotten. He also recalled the role continued on page 8 New Delhi, August 23 National Security Adviser Ajit Doval is set to travel to Beijing on Monday, just weeks before Chinese President Xi Jinping’s expected visit to India for the BRICS leaders’ summit scheduled for September 12-13. Doval will take part in the Special Representatives (SRs) talks on the boundary issue with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday. During his visit, Doval may also call on President Xi, sources said. While Beijing has not released any official statement on Xi’s visit to New Delhi, sources said that the trip was expected to go ahead. It would be Xi’s first visit to India since October 2019, when he attended an informal summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu. Bilateral ties subsequently came under severe strain following the military standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh in April 2020. Before the BRICS summit, Modi and Xi are also expect- ed to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on September 1. According to the sources, a bilateral meeting on the sidelines remained a possibility. Doval and Wang, the designated Special Representatives (SRs) on the boundary issue, are scheduled to hold the 25th round of SR talks on Tuesday. The mechanism is tasked with resolving the long-pending boundary dispute between the two countries. The forthcoming meeting will be the first round of SR talks in a year. The previ- ous round was held in New Delhi in August last year, when both sides reaffirmed the 2005 agreement, “Political Parameters and Guiding Principles for the Settlement of the India-China Boundary Question”, as a reference point to comprehensively address the boundary dispute. India and China do not have a mutually agreed and demarcated boundary. Troops from both sides remain deployed along the 3,488-km LAC stretching across the Himalayan region. continued on page 8 28-yr-old Punjab man shot while delivering pizza in New York City New York, August 23 A 28-year-old man from Kapurthala, Gurdeep Singh, was shot dead in New York City by an unidentified person following an altercation. Gurdeep, who moved to the US more than a decade ago, was fatally shot around 10 pm (local time) near Stanley Avenue while delivering a pizza, the North American Punjabi Association (NAPA) said on Sunday. The suspect fled the scene after the incident. When the police reached the spot, they found the victim with gunshot injuries in the chest. Paramedics rushed Gurdeep to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to CBS News. A surveillance video shows two persons fighting in the street followed by a flash of light, assumed to be from gunshots. One person fell on the ground and the other got in a car and drove off. The police searched the neighbourhood for evidence till Saturday morning. No arrests have been made so far. NAPA executive director Satnam Singh Chahal said the incident should not be treated as an isolated case. “Every time a young Punjabi or Sikh person is killed, a family is destroyed. We cannot allow repeated violence to become something the community simply learns to live with,” Chahal said. NAPA urged the investigators to establish the exact motive behind the killing and cautioned against concluding before the probe was over. — PTI ‘DIABOLICAL MOVES’ AFOOT, RAISE CONCERNS Ten days have passed since the LS was adjourned sine die, but there is no info on its prorogation. It’s true that the gap for the monsoon session in 2015 was 28 days. However, there were no diabolical moves afoot then. Jairam Ramesh, CONGGENSECY } Lok Sabha was adjourned sine die but still there is no information on its prorogation,” the Congress general secretary said. Jairam added that a delay of this nature was not unprecedented, pointing to the monsoon sessions of 2015 and 2021, when the gaps between adjournment and prorogation were 28 and 20 days, respectively. However, he emphasised that the circumstances were different on those occasions. “It is true that the gap for the monsoon session in 2015 was 28 days and in 2021, it was 20 days. However, there were no diabolical moves afoot then,” he said. “What explains the abnor- mal delay now,” Jairam asked, specifically raising the possibility that the government could be seeking to secure the numbers required for a constitutional amendment on delimitation. “Is the Union Home Minister still in search of his tainted two-thirds majority to get the constitutional amendment Bill on delimitation passed in a special session,” he asked. Jairam’s remarks come against the backdrop of the government’s earlier handling of parliamentary proceedings. The Budget session was similarly not prorogued immediately before a special session was convened, during which the 131st Constitutional Amendment Bill, linking delimitation with women’s reservation, was introduced. The proposed constitutional measure, however, failed to secure the required twothirds majority and was defeated on the floor of the House. The issue of delimitation has also triggered political debate among parties in southern India, particularly over the possible impact of any future redistribution of continued on page 8 Bid to target CM: Gurpreet rejects ~5-cr bribe charge Ruchika M Khanna PTI Tribune News Service Assailant flees | Motive unclear | Gurdeep moved to US 10 yrs ago Haryana CM Nayab Singh Saini and others during ‘Samrasta Sammelan &Pratibha Samman Samaroh’ at Bawal. PTI Saini to seek ‘Meghwal’ tag for SC group in caste certificates Sumedha Sharma Tribune News Service Bawal (Rewari), August 23 Haryana will approach the Centre for permission to allow members of a stigmatised Scheduled Caste community to use “Meghwal” in their caste certificates, Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini said here on Sunday. “We will recommend to the Centre that members of the ‘Chamar’ community be given the choice to use the word ‘Meghwal’ in their caste certificates, if they so wish,” Saini said. The announcement came in response to one of 10 demands placed before the Chief Minister by the Meghwal Utthan Samiti. Saini accepted all 10 demands, saying they would be forwarded to the departments concerned for approval and announced a grant of Rs 31 lakh for the organisation. ‘Chamar’ is listed under Haryana’s SC category, but a section of the community has long viewed the term as carrying a derogatory, castebased stigma rooted in its historical association with leatherwork and untouchability. Over the years, community members across states have pushed for the continued on page 8 Chandigarh, August 23 Dr Gurpreet Kaur Mann, wife of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, on Sunday rejected allegations that she demanded Rs 5 crore to help scuttle a rape case, calling the charges baseless and meant to hit the CM politically. In her first public response to the controversy, she challenged those levelling allegations against her to substantiate them or be ready to face legal action. Flanked by Health Minister Dr Balbir Singh and Punjab State Commission for Women chairperson Raj Lalli Gill, Gurpreet said the allegations were nothing more than an attempt to politically target the Chief Minister. She was in Patiala to participate in a Teej function. “I will not be cowed down by their allegations or by the extent to which our opponents stoop for political gains. I challenge them to prove what they have alleged, or face legal action,” she said, adding that it was for the first time Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann’s wife Dr Gurpreet Kaur at a Teej event. in Punjab’s history that all pre-poll promises made by a political party have been fulfilled while AAP held the reins of the state. “The people of the state can see the difference between AAP and traditional parties and will make their voting choices in 2027 based on these factors, besides the benefits extended to women by the Bhagwant Mann government,” she said. The allegations against the CM’s wife were levelled last week by a former judge of the continued on page 8 Baddi-Nalagarh units ‘to blame’ for toxic Sutlej: FIR filed on Ropar MLA’s plaint Lalit Mohan Tribune News Service SUPREME COURT REVERSES HP HIGH COURT ORDER Nilu is also serving a life term in the Gudiya rape-cummurder case (the Kotkhai rape and murder case) that had led to widespread public outrage in the state in 2017. Nilu, a woodcutter, had raped and murdered a 16-year-old Class X student in Shimla’s Kotkhai area. “Having considered the rival contentions and going through the material on record and the continued on page 8 NSA Ajit Doval with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. FILE Tribune News Service Pollutants from industrial units in Baddi and Nalagarh areas of Himachal Pradesh accumulated in the Sutlej at Ropar headworks. TRIBUNE PHOTO Ropar, August 23 An FIR was registered at the City police station here on Sunday over the alleged discharge and dumping of chemical-based industrial waste into the Sutlej. The complaint, filed by AAP MLA from Ropar Dinesh Chadha, alleged that pollution entering the Sirsa river, which “eventually flows” into the Sutlej, was originating from the BaddiNalagarh industrial belt in Himachal Pradesh. The FIR was registered against unidentified industrial units in the Baddi-Nalagarh area under Sections 270, 271, 279 and 280 of the BNS; Sections 24 and 43 of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act; and Section 7 of the Environment (Protection) Act. Chadha told The Tribune that a substantial quantity of chemical-based waste had accumulated near the Ropar headworks on the Sutlej. He said the waste had originated from industries in the BaddiNalagarh area. According to the FIR, the alleged pollution posed a Today’s issue is of 16 pages, including four-page Delhi Tribune. c m y b HEAVY METALS IN RIVER n Ropar MLA alleges chemical waste from Baddi-Nalagarh industries enters the Sutlej through the Sirsa river n Environmentalist seeks meeting between Punjab and Himachal CMs over industrial pollution entering Punjab n Studies have reported pharmaceutical compounds and toxic heavy metals in the Sirsa downstream of Baddi potential threat to drinking water supplies, aquatic life and public health in Ropar city. The FIR identifies the suspected accused only in general terms “as a person associated with a factory in Baddi and Nalagarh”. No specific individual has been named in the accused field. Meanwhile, an environmentalist, Col Jasjit Singh Gill (retd), has written to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, urging him to immediately seek a meeting with the Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister to address pollution allegedly entering Punjab through the Sirsa river from the Baddi industrial area. Colonel Gill said industrial effluents from pharmaceutical and other industries, including ethanol plants, were being discharged at various points upstream of the Punjab-Himachal Pradesh boundary before the Sirsa entered Punjab near Ghanauli. He claimed the polluted water was subsequently affecting Punjab’s canal and river water system used for drinking water and irrigation. Colonel Gill urged the Punjab Government to direct the Punjab Pollution Control continued on page 8