Couple held for assaulting police
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Dec 26 — The police has arrested a couple from Bapu Dham Colony on the charges of assaulting and obstructing a police party from performing its duty.

On a tip-off that the couple — Sube and Rupa — were selling liquor illegally, a police party under the leadership of Ms Kuldeep Kaur, in charge of Bapu Dham police post, raided their premises. According to a complaint by Ms Kuldeep Kaur, the couple assaulted the police party.

A case has been registered.

Held for gambling: The police has arrested Girdhari Inam and Ramesh Chander, both residents of Khuda Lahora, for gambling near the main gate of the PGI.

A case under the Gambling Act has been registered.

Ornaments stolen: Mr Shakeel Rani, a resident of Indira Colony, Mani Majra, reported that someone had stolen gold and silver ornaments from her house while they were away from house.

The police has registered a case.

Eve-teasing: Nankoo Parsad has been arrested by the police on the charge of eve-teasing from near the Dhillion theatre.

A case has been registered.

Case registered: The police has registered a case against Amir Khan, a student of Bal Mandir Model School, Sector 22, on the charge of beating up another student of the school, Tarandeep. The arm bone of Tarandeep was reportedly fractured.

Liquor recovered: The police has arrested Darshan Singh, a resident of Burail, and seized 50 pouches of country liquor from his possession.

A case under the Excise Act has been registered.

Fresh arrivals steady vegetable rates
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Dec 26 — With fresh supplies coming in sufficient quantities, the prices of most vegetables have remained stable during the past week.

There was, however, a slight variation in the prices of the some vegetables, which the vendors attributed to the qualities of different varieties. While potato continued to be the lowest priced at Rs 3 a kg, capsicum, the price of which varied from Rs 25 to 30 per kg was the costliest. The prices of potato have come down since the desi variety started coming to the market, Mr Sham Lal Yadav, a vegetable seller of Sector 20, said.

According to survey of different vegetable markets, radish and cabbage were priced between Rs 4 and 5 for a kg. Carrot at Rs 5 to 6 per kg and tomato at Rs 8 to 10 a kg were reasonably priced, bringing smiles to the faces of housewives and salad lovers.

The prices of peas and gourd fluctuated between Rs 8 and Rs 10 and brinjal from Rs 5 to Rs 6. Similarly, good quality onions could be had for Rs 7 per kg.

Ginger was slightly expensive at Rs 30 to Rs 35. Garlic was priced at Rs 40.

Action committee awaits action

THE Action Committee of Cooperative House Building Societies is unhappy with the Chandigarh Administration for not allotting land to left-out cooperative societies. These societies have already made the mandatory 25 per cent earnest money deposit with the Chandigarh Housing Board. They did so almost two years ago and till date they are in the dark about the land allotment process.

The individual members of these societies have been complaining that even after depositing crores of rupees with the Administration, they have been living as tenants and paying rents. According to provisions, the land should have been allotted to them within two months of the deposit of the earnest money.

Even when the new Adviser to the Administrator, Mrs Vineeta Rai, took over in April this year, she announced that allotment of land to eligible societies would be her top most priority. The Administration had promised more than once that land would be allotted by end of 1999. But now when a few days are left for the year to end, nothing appears to be happening on this front.

The Action Committee says that in case of any further delay in allotment of land, it has no choice but to resort to peaceful agitational approach to force the Administration to expedite allotment of land.

Meanwhile, the Chandigarh State Federation of Cooperative House Building Societies after lowering the rate of interest to 13.5 per cent, besides raising the loan limit to Rs 5 lakh, has announced further concession to beneficiaries. They will now avail themselves of a further rebate of 0.25 per cent if during the preceding 12 months they have been punctual in depositing their loan repayment instalments.

Donate blood: In order to spread the message of blood donation among the masses, a resident of the city, Mr Charanjit Singh, has sent the following poem “as a message prepared especially for the New Millennium”:

Donate blood till you are alive,

Pledge your eyes after your demise.

One pouch of blood, lease someone your life,

When you breathe last, some other will be in sight.

In the absence of any recognitions,

don’t get annoyed and shy.

Do your duty honestly,

And rest leave it to Thy.

In the advent of any discrimination occurred,

Don’t get disturbed and keep aside.

Each one equal on the death bed,

Whether rich, poor or guide

Rise and wake-up O’ slumbering man,

Do something for the others, for this is a real life.

Card burden: It’s that time of the year again when everyone around the globe is being barraged with a whole load of New Year greetings, whether through post or now on e-mail. But for some this is nothing to be really excited about. Yes, you guessed it, for the postman and other postal officials!

This was experienced by a reporter recently, who went to the Sector 7 post office and asked for stamps for about 30 greeting cards. A very sad looking official looked at her and said, “Bibi, Ab To Bus Karo” (“Madam, please put a stop to this now”). When asked what the matter was, he replied that people were going crazy sending New Year greetings, and even when they knew that their greetings would not reach on time they insisted on sending their cards.

“But isn’t this the only season when the postal department needs to work overtime?”, queried the reporter again. The “downcast” official replied: “It’s the same now even during Divali”. Moral of the story: Send a greeting card to make your dear one happy, only at the cost of making the postal department miserable!!!

Y2K compliant: The Y2K bug has obviously taken the world by storm now. And so definitely this seems to be the latest buzz-word with the young crowd. Recently at the Sector 21 scooter market, a few young chaps were seen getting their white Maruti car painted in big bold black letters “Y2K”. That sure seems to be the statement of the next century.

Greeting cards: As in previous year, the Children’s Alliance for Protection of the Environment (CAPE) devoted to art heritage and environment conservation has brought out a beautiful all seasons greeting card based on a painting by renowned artist Satwant Singh on the theme “Ramayana and the international law” to enlighten the people that the internatinal law originated in India. Before presenting credentials, Hanuman, the ambassador of Ram Chandra, bowed before Ravana of Lanka, in the same way as do the ambassadors now a days. Second, he gave an ultimatum to the king that if he did not release Sita, he would destroy Lanka. The king flew into rage and said that he be executed. But his ministers intervened and said that he should not kill an ambassador.

Following the ESI and the CAP the local Uttarakhand Yuva Manch has published four types of new years greeting cards with the main aim to create awareness on preserving the heritage sites in Uttarakhand area.

Nek Chand serial: There is good news for the viewers wishing to know details about the life of rustic genius, Nek Chand, Creator-Director of the world-famous Rock Garden at Chandigarh. The national network of Doordarshan has started the telecast of “Rock Garden”, a tele-serial about the life of Nek Chand, on every Thursday at 11.30 p.m.

Produced by Megavision, a local software company, the serial is directed by Sunil Babbar, a noted producer-director of the city. They script has been written by Bharati and cinematography is by Manjeet Singh.

Presented as a docu-drama, the serial shows how a fairy tale told by Nek Chand’s mother finally led to the creation of the unique artistic creation out of scrap and useless material.

A striking feature of the serial is that the otherwise shy Nek Chand himself has appeared in the serial as one of the main performers. The other cast include Bharati, Anuj Saini, Pawan Nagpal, Master Aneesh, Master Sajal, Bhagwan Chand and Neena.

It is the first serial of its kind on Nek Chand, who has become a legend in his lifetime.

More deaths: The number of deaths in road accidents in the city until Christmas Day has exceeded the number of deaths that took place in the city during 1998. According to figures released by the police, the number of people killed until December 25 this year was 129 against 128 killed in the whole year last year. This figure includes three deaths in road accidents during the past one week.

Even the number of persons injured in road accidents this year so far has been more than the whole year’s figures for last year. Against 322 persons injured in accidents last year, 404 persons have already been injured until December 25.

A grand era ends: Rishi Patialvi (real name, B.D. Sharma) breathed his last after a massive heart attack last Sunday in Bombay where he had been leading a retired and sequestered life. Hailing from a prominent Misra family of Hoshiarpur district, he was an Urdu poet of exclusive eminence, who inherited the ancestral ideal of simple living and high thinking. The title “Rishi” was given by a family elder in recognition of his extraordinary ethical refinement and self-culture, and the suffix ‘Patialvi’ became its integral part on account of the beginning of his poetic career in Patiala.

The poet (82) belonged to Daagh Dehlavi’s lineage. He learnt the architectonies of poetry from Nassem Noormahali who was a pupil of Josh Malsiani who studies under the redoubtable Daagh Dehlavi himself. However, he was never “bogged down by the sheer weight of tradition”, and let his copious creativity transcend the “linguistic and thematic sophistication of the Daagh School of Urdu ghazal”. With Rishi Patialvi’s death, not only does this celebrated school come to an end but also the poet’s matchless ability to capture even the most elusive concepts in forms which are as palpably direct as they are epigrammatically subtle.

“Rishi Patialvi’s poetry is distinguished by an unusual sophistication of language, an exquisite craftsmanship, a refreshing contemporary style despite its classical moorings, an acute delicacy of perception, a dreamy gracefulness of manner, and a radar-like sensitivity to febrile flights of fancy”, according to Dr S.S. Bhatti, former Principal, Chandigarh College of Architecture, who has given a critical evaluation of the poet’s versatile output in his book “Contemporary Urdu Poetry : Contribution of Poets of Punjab”. He adds: “In spite of the fact that he is a puritan, neither his range of themes nor that of the modes of expression is limited. He has equal felicity with all forms of Urdu verse. The exuberance and the perennial youthfulness of his expression only substantiate the fact that a sound creative imagination can command vast expanses of air-space for almost anything otherwise bound — and suffocated — by the laws of earthly existence”.

St John’s selects cricket teams
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Dec 26 — The St John's cricket team, which will participate in the Blessed Edmund Rice Inter-House Cricket Tournament, has been selected.

According to a press note issued by the principal of the school, the boys selected for under-12, under-14 and under -16 age groups will represent the school after undergoing coaching at St John's Cricket Coaching Academy and the under-19 team will be selected in 15 days.

The under-10 team comprises Rahul Bakshi (captain), Devjot Singh, Sadeev Singh, Parveer Singh, Aayush Raj Soni, Dhruvavtar S. Ghai, Vikram Talwar, Vishal Jhatta, Abhijit Chadha, Saranjeet Singh, Himanshu Bawa, Kanav Chawla, Keshav Khanna (wicket-keeper) and Shantnu Gaagat.

The under-12 team comprises Nalin Chopra (captain), Karan S. Dhanoa, Ish Dhand, Avinav Malhotra, Chetanya Verma, Varun Gupta, Amrinder Pal Singh (wicket-keeper), Karan Gupta, Kritarth Jain, Gauravpal S. Gill, Vinayak Bahl, Amandeep Singh, Sahil Sahgal and Samarth Jusht.

The under-14 team consists of Avneet Singh (captain), Amrinder Pal Singh (wicket-keeper), Nalin Chopra, Abhey Kaushal, Shrey Kundra, Jasdeep S. Dhaliwal, Chaitanya Anand, Pranav Mehan, Siddharth Anand, Varun Issar, Arjun Behl, Arjun Talwar, Inder Pal Singh and Rajat Bhalla.

The under-16 team consists of Hiteshwar Pruthi (captain), Abhinav Bhalaik, Asim Ali Gupta, Gauhar Pruthi (wicket-keeper), Jasraj Bhatti, Harneet S. Arora, Kavit Sharma, Manudai P.S. Sohi, Saurabh Arora, Animesh Sharma, Nikhil Singhvi, Salil Soni, Kartik Bahl and Varun Setia.

The standbyes include Sushant Kaw, Vipul Joshi, Abhinav Sood, Manraj S. Toor, Mrinal Sharma, Abhimanyu Syal, Vasu Gulati, Ananteshwar S. Kohli, Anhad Gill, Ashish Kapoor, Rahul Gautam, Rohan Bakshi, Rohan Mittal, Dhruv Jain, Vikramaditya Malik, Ankit Arora, Nitesh Bhargav and Gobind Kharta.