25022026-JTR-01.qxd 2/24/2026 10:28 PM Page 1 c m y b Jalandhar tribune PUNJAB POLICE EQUESTRIAN TEAM WIN MEDALS Led by team manager Inderbir Singh, the team secured a bronze medal in the Medley Relay Team Event. P2 » AGRI VARSITY HOLDS BAKING WORKSHOP MAINLY CLEAR MAX 25°C | MIN 11°C YESTERDAY MAX 25°C | MIN 11°C RUN BY WOMEN, SHIMLA'S CAFÉ OFFERS PANCAKES, SHAKES The programme aimed at promoting skill development and self-employment opportunities in the baking sector. P3 FORECAST Having 95% women staff, Wood Street Café in Shimla city offers a variety of cuisine, pancakes and shakes. P4 » SUNSET WEDNESDAY 6.22 PM SUNRISE THURSDAY 6:58 AM » WEDNESDAY | 25 FEBRUARY 2026 | JALANDHAR HEALTH & WELLNESS The Tribune is starting 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 BOLERO PARKED IN FRONT OF SHOP STOLEN Phagwara: In a case of vehicle theft reported from Mohalla Santokhpura, Phagwara, miscreants allegedly stole a Bolero parked outside a shop, prompting the police to initiate an investigation. According to information, the Bolero was parked outside a shop located in Santokhpura when it was stolen. Vehicle owner Surendra Kumar, a resident of the locality, stated that the vehicle had been parked outside the premises. Surendra urged the authorities to take swift action to recover the vehicle. He also appealed for increased vigilance in the area to prevent similar incidents in the future. Police officials reached the spot after receiving the complaint and began preliminary inquiries. A case has been registered and CCTV footage from nearby establishments is being examined to identify the suspects and trace the vehicle's movement. OC TWO BOOKED FOR CULPABLE HOMICIDE Phagwara: The Shahkot police have booked two villagers on the charge of killing a man by giving him a poisonous substance. The accused have been identified as Shinda of Sandhawal Mand village and Kulwant Singh, alias Babu, of Rampur village. Manjit Kaur of Sandhawal Mand village complained to the police that the accused gave a poisonous substance to her husband Yakoob and killed him. A case under Sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the BNS and 15/61/85 of the NDPS Act has been registered against the accused. OC MANY BOOKED FOR CLASH Phagwara: The Nakodar police have booked many miscreants on the charge of clash. The accused has been identified Lakhbir Singh, alias Lakha, a resident of Dherai village, and his many accomplices. Jasveer Singh Sarpanch of Dherai village, on behalf of village residents, complained to the police that the accused were armed with weapons and played hooligans at a point on the Nakodar-Jalandhar road between Dheria and Sianniwal villages and created danger for residents, and used filthy language. OC BIKER KILLED IN ACCIDENT Phagwara: A motorcyclist was killed in an accident when his two-wheeler collided with a roadside tree. The deceased has been identified as Harmanpreet Singh (35), a resident of Malrri village. The father of the deceased told the police that his son was driving his motorcycle, which went out of control and collided with a roadside tree and he died. The police handed over the body to the family after the postmortem. oc 3 teenage girls go missing from city Hunt on by cops to track schoolgirls Tribune News Service Jalandhar, February 24 Three teenage girls hailing from the Sunder Nagar area of the city have been missing since Monday, making their families jittery. The girls are aged between 13 and 16. Two of them are sisters while the third is a neighbour. All three of them are school girls. The families of the girls got to know about it when they returned from work last evening. The families enquired about the girls from the neighbourhood but they had no clue. Finally, when the CCTV footages in the locality were scanned, the trio was seen walking out on their own at 1:30 pm. The body language of the girls showed as if they were trying to quickly sneak out without being noticed by anyone. The family reported the matter to the police at Division Number 8 police station at 9 pm on Monday. Police teams followed the CCTV trails to hunt for the girls. ACP North Ashok Meena said, “Our teams are following the trails and we are hopeful that we will be able to track them and rescue them safely soon”. Sources in the police have said the girls had reached a neighbouring state where the police teams have been sent. The parents of the sisters said, “Both of us work in a factory in Gadaipur. We had no clue about our girls leaving the house till we came back from work, reported the matter to the police and checked out the CCTV footages. We just hope that they are back home safely at the earliest”. Pile-up on Phagwara railway overbridge leads to traffic jam Our Correspondent Phagwara, Februay 24 Traffic movement on the Phagwara-Jalandhar highway was severely disrupted after three vehicles collided on the railway overbridge near Chehru village on Tuesday. The accident led to a traffic jam on the busy stretch, causing inconvenience to commuters during peak hours. Fortunately, no casualties were reported, though all three vehicles sustained significant damage. According to police officials, the mishap took place near the Chehru railway overbridge on the national highway when a Hyundai Venue travelling towards Phagwara suddenly applied brakes. An Innova fol- A vehicle involved in pile-up. lowing closely also braked in time to avoid a direct hit. However, a goods vehicle trailing the Innova reportedly went out of control and rammed into the car from behind. The impact of the collision caused a chain reaction, resulting in all three vehicles crashing into one another and suffering damage. The force of the impact briefly brought traffic to a standstill on the overbridge, with long queues of vehicles forming on both sides of the highway. Officials of the Road Safety Force promptly reached the scene and initiated swift action to restore normalcy. The damaged vehicles were removed from the roadway and traffic was gradually restored. SHO Binderpal Singh stated that preliminary findings suggest sudden braking as the immediate cause of the incident. He added that further inquiry is being conducted to ascertain all circumstances surrounding the accident. Security guard shoots himself in Kapurthala Phagwara, February 24 A 28-year-old security guard allegedly shot himself dead at his residence in Grover Enclave of Kapurthala late at night, the police said on Tuesday. The authorities were alerted and a team from the city police station rushed the spot and took the body into custody. The deceased has been identified as Sachin, son of Gurmeet Singh, who resided in Grover Enclave near the New Court Complex but hailed from Badduwal village. According to police officials, Sachin was employed as a security guard at a rubber factory in Kapurthala. Deputy Superintendent of Police Daljit Singh stated that preliminary investigation suggested that the victim used an illegal .315 bore pistol to shoot himself in the forehead. The body has been shifted to the Civil Hospital mortuary for the postmortem examination. The police have recovered the weapon along with the deceased’s mobile phone from the scene. The authorities are investigating the source of the illegal firearm and the circumstances that may have led to the extreme step. Officials said legal action would be initiated after the post-mortem report is received. — OC Encroachment near Bhargo Nagar, BJP seeks inquiry Tribune News Service Jalandhar, February 24 Alleging that an illegal construction was underway on a government land near Bhargo Nagar Police Station, a delegation of BJP leaders, led by former MLA Jalandhar West Sheetal Angural, on Tuesday gave a complaint to the Jalandhar Deputy Commissioner and Mayor. Angural submitted the copies of the ownership of land (fard) in the name of the Centre and photographs as proof of the ongoing construction to both officials. He submitted an additional copy of the complaint to the DC for the Chief Secretary and an extra copy to Mayor for being moved to the Secretary of the Local Bodies Department. Angural demanded that the construction must be stopped immediately. General secretary of the BJP Ashok Sareen Hicky, councillors Tarvinder Sohi and Ajay Babal, party leaders Darshan Bhagat, Amit Singh Sandha and Harminder Sandhu, BJP Mandal president Manish Bal and BJP leader Yogesh Malhotra were also a part of the BJP delegation. He demanded that the DC and the Mayor should conduct an investigation and Illegal structure on a government land near Bhargo Nagar. take strict action. Hicky appealed to the DC to form a joint action committee under the leadership of the ADC, including the Revenue Department, Municipal Corporation, and Police Department, to investigate all aspects such as ownership, possession, registry and Turn your skills into a powerful portfolio - master real projects through hands-on modules! Consumer panel fines SBI for treating education loan as personal loan Introduction to AI & AI Tools AI Creativity & Presentations Workshop Building with AI: Websites, Games & Apps AI Avatars & Chatbot Development From Idea to Business Plan (Launch Your First AI Project) Recap & Finale Orders bank to refund excess interest, extend eligible interest subsidy and compensation to MBBS student Rishika Kriti Tribune News Service Jalandhar, February 24 The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Jalandhar, has penalised the Lambra branch of the State Bank of India on the Nakodar road for treating an education loan as personal loan and charging higher interest from an MBBS student. Directing corrective measures, the commission also ordered the bank to refund the excess interest, extend eligible interest subsidy and pay Rs 20,000 compensation for mental harassment caused to the complainant and Rs 10,000 as litigation expenses. The complaint was filed by Sangeena and her father Ram Pal, residents of Maqsudan. In 2012, Sangeena had applied for an education loan of Rs 4 lakh from SBI’s Lambra branch for pursuing her MBBS degree. The loan documents were executed jointly by her and her father as co-borrower. According to the complaint, all required documents were submitted for an education loan under the bank’s education loan scheme. However, the complainants noted that instead of sanctioning the education loan, the bank treated the loan as a personal loan without informing them. A personal loan carries a higher rate of interest and does not provide the benefit of a moratorium period. Under the education loan scheme, repayment starts a year after completion of the course and the tenure can extend up to 15 years. The student completed her MBBS degree in 2016 and her compulsory internship in January 2018. She was registered with the Punjab Medical Council in March 2018. She argued that repayment should have started in April 2019 after the moratorium period. However, the bank started recovery earlier and classified the account as a NPA in April 2018, hampering her CIBIL score. The complainant approached the banking ombudsman in 2019 where the ombudsman directed the bank to reset the interest, not to charge penal interest, extend the repayment period by one year, update the CIBIL report and process the interest subsidy. The complainant also paid Rs 65,895 as directed by the ombudsman for April 2018 to February 2019 as resetting of interests. However, she asserted that the bank later fixed the repayment period at 43 monthly installments instead of a longer tenure under the education loan scheme. She also claimed that the interest refund was wrongly calculated and the NPA tag was not properly removed, prompting her to take her case to the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission. During the proceedings before the commission, documents obtained under the Right to Information Act showed that the loan was converted from personal loan to education loan on March 27, 2019. The commission observed that the application was for an education loan and that important details in the loan agreement were left blank at the time of execution. It held that sanctioning and treating the loan as a personal loan amounted to deficiency in service and unfair trade practice. In its final verdict dated January 30, the commission, chaired by Dr Harveen Bhardwaj and member Jyotsna, directed the bank to treat the account strictly under the education loan scheme, recalculate interest at the applicable rate, refund excess interest, including eligible interest subsidy and update the CIBIL record by removing the NPA tag. It also directed the bank to pay compensation and litigation costs to the consumer. Registrations Open Now Course Begins: 04.04.2026 MASTER AI- SHAPE THE FUTURE A comprehensive AI Certification Course : Designed exclusively for students from Class 6 to 12 Foundations of Artificial Intelligence Data, Automation & Real-World Use Cases AI Education by Certified & Experienced Faculty No coding experience required SCAN TO REGISTER While others wait, smart students are already building apps, games & tools. Equip yourself with the #1 skill of the 21st century! Inaugural Offer: ₹ 9,999 Register Online at For more information c m y b demarcation of this land. The BJP leaders appealed to the administration that instead of encroachment, houses or flats for poor, needy, and homeless people along with a large hall should be constructed, which could be useful for the people living around Bhargo Nagar. [Full Fees: ₹ 15 000] 15,000] learning.tribuneindia.com learnaiwithtribune@tribunemail.com