C H A N D I G A R H

Grisly end: A cop covers the body of one of the deceased with a sheet; (right) policemen bring out the body of another deceased, which was dumped in the bathroom of the liquor vend in Sector 24 of Chandigarh on Thursday. — Tribune photos by Manoj Mahajan

Liquor vend looted, two hacked to death CHANDIGARH, Aug 17 — Unidentified persons struck at a liquor vend in Sector 24, hacked to death two employees sleeping inside and reportedly decamped with nearly Rs 40 to 45 lakh in the wee hours this morning.

Tax on 58 life-saving drugs goes in UT
CHANDIGARH, Aug 17 — Patients can heave a sigh of relief as the Chandigarh Administration has exempted as many as 58 life-saving drugs from sales tax. A notification to this effect has been issued by the UT Finance Department. They will no longer have to pay double the prices for some of these costly drugs.

Telephone services improve
CHANDIGARH, Aug 16--Claims of the Department of Telecommunication notwithstanding, trunk services from the city and the surrounding areas continued to remain disrupted for the fifth day today on account of software problems in the Trunk Automatic Exchange network.

Roads, lights, drains, parks, water, power — you’ll get it all
SAS NAGAR, Aug 17 — With just two days left for the polling day on August 20 in the Municipal Council elections, canvassing by almost all candidates has become hectic.

Police seizes cassette in Rani Balbir case
PATIALA, Aug 17 — The Patiala police has claimed to have recovered an audio cassette, according to which Rani Balbir Kaur. Professor in the Department of Indian Theatre, allegedly demanded money from a person wanting to go to the United States as part of her troupe.

COMMUNITY

Students still lapping up second-hand books
CHANDIGARH, Aug 17 — There might be attraction in glamour, but modesty is still all powerful. The observation comes true when one visits the various book shops selling second-hand books in the city. These shop owners in Sectors 15, 16, 24 and 17 and Attawa chowk are doing a roaring business.

Administration sleeps as polythene ban expires
CHANDIGARH, Aug 17 — Discarded polythene bags are choking the sewers and finding their way to the stomachs of hapless cattle. They have also found their way into intestines of whales in deep dark oceans.

Crorepati mania is for sure
Confident? Lock kar do
CHANDIGARH, Aug 17— While the media sells dreams, thousands come forward to lap them up. Nothing can be a better indicator of this tendency of the common man than the roaring success of the Star TV serial Kaun Banega Crorepati where human urges are tickled to gain commercial advantage.

Petrol price hike criticised
CHANDIGARH, Aug 17—The decision of the Chandigarh Administration to hike the prices of petrol has come in for severe criticism from various quarters.

Vanmahotsav celebrated
CHANDIGARH, Aug 17 — About 20 saplings of the medicinal variety were planted at Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 33 here today. Mr Satbir Singh Kadhiyan, Speaker Vidhan Sabha, Haryana, planted the saplings on the occasion of the celebration of Vanmahotsav and inauguration of two rooms which were built with the contribution of Parent Teacher Association (PTA).

Chetna manch lodges protest
CHANDIGARH, Aug17 — The Janwadi Chetna Manch, Chandigarh has sent a telegram to the President of India, protesting against the ABVP’s reaction to Dr. B. H. Kalyankar’s lecture delivered in a seminar.

Sweepers Union activists clash
CHANDIGARH, Aug 17 — Two factions of the Sweepers Union today clashed on the premises of the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh(MCC).

CRIME

Woman attempts suicide
CHANDIGARH, Aug 17 — A resident of Colony number 4 tried to commit suicide here today.

READER'S WRITE

Non-serious students and teachers
Students on the Panjab University campus are agitated that their fees has been hiked. They want the fees to be pegged at rates that were fixed in the 1960s. This means that a student pays something like the cost of three bottles of cold drink for the privilege of attending classes in the university for one month. No wonder they treat university education with the respect due to a bottle of coca-cola.

• Pedestrian crossings
  
• Encroachments ignored
  
• “Kundi” connections
  
• Speed limits
  
• Coaching classes
  
• Anandgarh project
  
• Shaheed Udham Singh
  
• Petrol stations
  

EDUCATION

B.Ed admissions go hi-tech
CHANDIGARH, Aug 17 — To facilitate smooth counselling-cum-interview for admission to B.Ed, the Dev Samaj College of Education has introduced the broadcast information system in the college premises. This system would help the students and parents to access the latest information about the subject combination, total number of seats, available seats and candidate’s marks on the monitor.

Punjabi spell check software sought
SAS Nagar, Aug 17— A workshop on ‘Teaching subjects at the school level in view of future needs’, has been conducted by the Punjab School Education Board. The two-day workshop which concluded here today, recommended that Punjabi should be standardised and a spell check software for the language be designed and developed.

Inaugural session of Vidya Bhavan
CHANDIGARH, Aug 17 — Addressing 16th inaugural session of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Dayanand College of Communication and Management, Mr Ram S Varma told teachers and students that knowledge revolution was influencing the education system in many ways. In the present context the teacher could not afford to be merely a knowledge provider. “The essence of teaching lies in the teachers ability to create an insatiable search of knowledge in the students which must continue till the very end.’’

CULTURE

18 beauties vie for titles
CHANDIGARH, Aug 17 — On the first day of the three-day beauty pageant, "Face of the Year Award", organised at Hotel Mountview, the contestants vied for for the titles of Miss Beautiful Skin, Miss Body Beautiful and Miss Photogenic. A bevy of girls walked alongside the swimming pool, flaunting their bodies.

Anyatha — a recreation of traditional charms
CHANDIGARH, Aug 17 — When rich mediums and novel ideas are put together what emerges is art — verdant as the newly grown grass. Today, a part of this freshness could be breathed in the environs of Alliance Francaise Art Gallery where Bhopal talent has got together to produce strong aesthetic effects in the exhibition titled Anyatha.

Poets reflect upon bitter truths of life
CHANDIGARH, Aug 17 — Timid thoughts don't be afraid of me, I am a poet — said Rabindra Nath Tagore. Each time poets get together to reflect upon the bitter-sweet truths of life, this eternal verse of Tagore comes to life, as it did this evening, when about 10 poets read their hearts out to an exceptionally receptive audience in the auditorium of Government College for Girls here.

Beauty contest or dance show?
CHANDIGARH, Aug 17 — It was yet another lacklustre beauty contest organised at Tagore Theatre here today. Mr and Miss India North West-2000 beauty contest organised by the Western Star Group and City Entertainment Channel was more of a dance show than a beauty contest. The number of dances staged outnumbered the pageant rounds and songs were repeated.

SPORT

Girls at STC feel insecure
CHANDIGARH, Aug 17 — Imagine, the protectors of people becoming a continuous scare and nightmare for more than 50 girls and all inmates of the Sports Authority of India, Sports Training Centre, Sector 18, for the past around one month. It all began with the renovation of bungalow of the former Director-General Police, Punjab, Mr Puran Chand Dogra, touching the ground of Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Sector 18.

A chess prodigy of city
CHANDIGARH, Aug 17 — Anmol Razdan of Chandigarh, began learning chess by reading books of famous chess players and never went for formal coaching.

Harminder stars in SD school victory
CHANDIGARH, Aug 17 — SD Public School, Sector 32, comprising international star Harminder Singh, outscored AKSIP School, Sector 41, at 60-15 on the second day of the UT junior basketball tournament played here at Sector 46 Sports Complex. The half-time score was 18-5. The scorers for winners were Harminder (26) and Chander Prakash (20).

• Rakesh, Anandit win
• Club tennis
  

ADMINISTRATION

Administration recasts four committees
CHANDIGARH, Aug 17 — The Chandigarh Administration has reconstituted some of its advisory committees to look after work pertaining to different departments.

Threat to environment grave: Jacob
CHANDIGARH, Aug 17 — The Governor of Punjab and Administrator of UT, Lieut-Gen J.F.R. Jacob (retd), today expressed his concern over the encroachment of an area of 16 km around the city. He said that the administration was taking steps to protect the periphery from further encroachment. He was speaking at a function organised by Vivek High School in collaboration with the National Safety Council (NSC) to launch the tree plantation drive.

Drive to issue voters' I-card in Rajpura
CHANDIGARH, Aug 17 — The administration has launched a drive to issue voters' identity cards to the remaining persons in Rajpura. According to official information available here, the Subdivisional Magistrate, Mr Bhupinder Singh, and his team of officials has stated contacting voters in the wards and mohallas to get their identity cards made.