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| Thursday, February 22, 2001, Chandigarh, India |
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City to have petrol station marts soon CHANDIGARH The Architecture Department has already identified 27 pumps across the city where land is available for allotment adjacent to the existing area. In case of the other 12 pumps which cannot be offered land it is sheer bad luck as land is just not available near these petrol stations. The administration is yet to finalise a rate for the land which commands a massive premium but various options are being studied. Once this is finalised the scheme will be announced, sources said. The land will be allotted to house bank ATMs which are presently located in crowded market places where parking has become a major problem. Sophisticated workshops like those offering painting , car wheel balancing or even automated car wash require more area than had been originally allotted to the pumps. Besides this, shops, if allowed in petrol stations, hold high potential to sell stationery items, mobile phone “sim” cards, music cassettes, mineral water, computer floppies, snacks and items of daily use. The petrol stations also function at odd hours when shops are normally closed thus offering residents another option. This will also save time as it will require one stop to fill fuel and pick up small items for the home. In the past 5 months local petroleum dealers have met high officials seeking permission to open shops selling small items on the lines of the highly popular BP 21 outlet owned by Bharat Petroleum. They had cited various reasons, including competition and dropping sales due to price of petrol being higher in the city after the implementation of the uniform sales tax regime. Besides this bank ATMs and shops selling phone accessories or stationery items would benefit consumers also. Sources said the cost of land is the only hitch at the moment. The cost just cannot be worked out on the basis of a per square yard average of shops cum-offices (SCOs) being auctioned in an area. And nor can the land be handed over for a song. A sort of middle path has to be evolved. The land will be allotted to the companies, which have allotted the pumps to the licence holders. In normal course whenever a pump is opened the land is allotted to companies and not the individual. But the issue of land allotment in this case is ticklish as the land cannot be given on prices fixed for companies as it will be used for commercial purposes. The covered area allowed to pumps will be much lesser than that allowed to SCO’s or booths. Even height and storey restrictions will apply thus the area will not be fully exploitable for commercial purposes. All these factors have to be borne in mind before the price is
finalised, said sources. |
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Shivratri celebrated CHANDIGARH Thousands of devotees thronged various temples in the city to offer prayers to Lord Shiva since early morning and offered fruits and milk to the “Shivlinga”. “Parsad” of milk and fruits was offered to the devotees. “Parbhat pheris” were organised in several sectors. In Sri Sanatan Dharam Mandir, Sector 46, a spiritual library was inaugurated by Mr P.L. Sethi, finance secretary of the executive committee. Dr R.P. Bajpai, CSIO Director, inaugurated the In Colony No 5, the National Congress Party celebrated the festival. Various speakers, while highlighting the significance of the day, urged the people to render selfless service to humanity irrespective of their caste, community and religion. Sri Radha Krishan Temple, Sector 41, Sri Luxmi Naryanan Temple, Sector 20, Sri Sanatan Dharam Temple, Sector 23, and the Sri Mahakali Temple Sector 30, were among the temples, where long queues were witnessed. In Panchkula, the temple at Saketri witnessed heavy rush as devotees began to queue outside the temple since 2 am. Carrying fruit and milk, they continued to stand in the queue, patiently awaiting their turn. Amidst heavy police presence to check any untoward incident and to manage the growing numbers outside the temple premises, over one lakh devotees offered prayers at the shrine. |
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Celina gives away NIFD awards CHANDIGARH, February 20
— The formal ceremony saw a lot of cheering, and quite naturally so. As the beauty queen awarded diplomas, the hall of Community Centre, Sector 18, resonated with cheers throughout the two hours. Dressed in a reddish-brown gown, the beauty queen remained the centre of attraction. The occasion was also taken to honour the beauty queen and to do the honours, UT SSP Mr Parag Jain was present. Also present were NIFD Directors Ms Ritu Kochhar and Mr Ashok Kaushik. Addressing the students Ms Kochhar talked about the fast inroads that NIFD was making into the fashion industry. “In a short span of time NIFD has become a household name, providing creative budding designers and contributing cream to the fashion industry. We are now also opening up centres in Bangladesh, Nepal as also in the UAE. Our target this year is to conquer the international market by breaking the myth of fashion flowing down from West to East.” Following this, an annual report on the achievements made by the Institute during the past year, was read out by Ms Priyanka Singh, Centre Head, Chandigarh NIFD. GM Corporate, NIFD, Ms Aditi Srivastava, also spoke. Another highlight of the evening was the best NIFD Centre 2000-2001and the best NIFD Centre, 1999-2000 award which was bagged by the Jaipur and Ludhiana centres, respectively. The awards were presented by Celina to Ms Kamla Poddar and Mr Arvind Gupta, who are the respective Centre heads. Ms India 2001 spoke in a conversational manner. She said “Remember one day Ritu Beri, JJ Valaya, Manish Malhotra and all these top shot names selling in the market were also students. But with their sheer dedication and commitment towards their goals they made themselves stand out from the rest.” The following are regional toppers for the year: Chandigarh: Aditi Goel and Sonika Gupta (fashion design), Shelly Rangbulla (textile design) and Manik Sidhu (interior design) Ludhiana: Rupinder Dhillon (fashion design), Nidhi Aggarwal and Mona Khosla (textile design), Monika Garg and Gurpreet Chawla (interior design) Outer Delhi: Ajay tandon (interior design) Bhatinda: Baljeet Kaur and Janinder Kalsi (fashion design) Khanna: Harneet kang and Rimmu Gupta (fashion design) and Ritu Seth (interior design) Feropzepur: Vidyotma Sud (fashion design) Amritsar: Shivani Gupta and Sakshi Bhatia (fashion design), Jyotika and Ginni Jaspal (textile design), Ritika Aggarwal and Rashmi Saraf (interior design) Jalandhar: Anuradha, Sakshi, Ranjit, Amarpreet, Bharti Chopra and Arvinder Singh Patiala: Vipan Preet, Rajneet Makkar, Ritika Sawhney, Simran Kaur, Alina Goel. |
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Woes of temporary library assistants CHANDIGARH Repeated representations to the university authorities by affected persons have yielded no positive reply. The change has debarred them even from leave facility like other regular employees. Interestingly, they are being paid “lesser even than the library restorers and peons whom they are supposed to supervise”. A letter (dated January 23, 2001) by an Assistant Registrar replying on behalf of the university has communicated “regrets that the request of temporary library assistants for being given regular grade of posts of library assistants has not been acceded to by the Vice-Chancellor”. A representation to the Vice-Chancellor highlighting the issue reads that they “were working against vacant posts of Deputy Librarians and Assistant Librarians. They were being paid the usual grade of Rs 5480-8925 till March 2000. In January 2000, a circular was issued to various departments seeking applications for fresh panel library assistants. There was no indication of amounts as salary for the candidates. It was understood that they would be paid as earlier. All eight in the category of affected candidates had applied. The selection committee was also asked to recommend the emoluments. A grade of Rs 7,500 had been recommended for them by the Selection Committee and forwarded by the Vice-Chancellor. However, according to sources the Establishment Branch sent back the list commenting that the candidates did not qualify for a scale higher than that of Rs 4,000. The candidates, who have with a Masters of Library and Information Science degree, are a peeved lot as they have been put at par with Junior Engineer who were only diploma holders. According to sources financial crunch being faced by the university is one of the main reasons for the present situation. Interestingly, two candidates (one at PU campus another at the Muktsar centre) have been placed in the scale of Rs 5480-8925 along with other benefits. “Why a difference in service conditions? said a candidate showing a tall pile of books she was handling on a gazetted holiday today for which she will not receive any benefit. A leave availed even in case of emergency usually results in cut in salary in their case. |
Police wireless meet begins PANCHKULA , Feb 21 — Revived after a gap of four years, the New Millennium All India Police Wireless Meet 2001 started at the Basic Training Centre of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) in Bhanu, near here today.Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, who was the chief guest, said that the latest technologies in telecommunication has converted the globe into a village. We should change according to time. There is need to handle these latest equipment in a constructive manner by skilled operators. He said that majority of the ITBP personnel were deployed in Himachal border areas. “They have proved very helpful in checking infiltration in border areas of Chamba district where some Pakistani militants had intruded two years ago. Apart from it, ITBP Jawans saved a number of people from floods in Kinnaur in August last year”, said Mr Dhumal. After releasing pigeons, he declared the meet open. Earlier, Gautam Kaul, Director General of the ITBP, appealed the participants to play with sportsmanship. He said that a record number of 12 state police and paramilitary teams were participating in the meet. During the meet, HF wireless communication skills of participating teams would be evaluated by competent judges of the Directorate of Coordination Police Wireless. Besides this a three-day seminar-cum-demonstration on ‘‘Surveillance and wireless equipment’’ will also be organised to give an opportunity to the police delegates to discuss problems faced in the field of communication, he said. He also announced cash awards of Rs 25,000, Rs 15,000 and Rs 10,000 for the first three winner teams and two individual prizes of Rs 5,000 each.  |
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Unique paper cutting art CHANDIGARH, February 21 — Prabal Pramanik, the only master artist of Devasthankala, a traditional art of paper cutting, chose to settle in the sleepy Himachal village of Bhamalad, about 40 km from Pathankot, even while there was no water and electricity supply in the area.The man, credited with being the only artist pursuing the art of shadow puppets, lived there till the village developed, and went on to impart the training of paper cutting to any interested villager. And all this not for money...only for the sake of a dying art, which originated long back in the South East Asia. The ustaad, who is in town to present five themes through shadow puppet shows, on an invitation from Alliance Francaise, spoke to The Tribune about the art, its relevance, and its spiritual leaning. The interesting part in Prabal's life is that he was born with paper cutting skills and could simply cut compositions as complex as trees and mudras without any previous drawings. "I probably inherited these genes from my paternal grandfather Shashibhushan Pramanik who was dead by the time I was born. I pursued this art which dates back to several centuries." Today, Prabal has 17 rooms in his house at Bhamalad, and each of these is devoted to art in some form or the other. In one, he has a full art gallery where he has stored about 6,500 original art pieces. In another, there is a library which has 8,500 books. Prabal is also into teaching art, apart from being a poet, a writer and a filmmaker. Laughs the artist as he cuts compositions for his puppet show titled Buddha Sadhana at Urvilla which he presented today at Thai Temple, Ashok Buddha Vihar, Khuda Alisher, "You have to be a child to keep experimenting with forms of art." He can use his precision to cut any object — from rustic village scenery to portraits. When asked why he was commencing with a theme on Buddha, he replied: "The art of paper cutting is as old as the days of Chetanya Mahaprabhu. It originated along the sea coast in Mali, Java, Cambodia, Indonesia. And the connection between Buddha and the South East Asia is well-established." In fact, the art, which is gradually dying, was pursued in the medium of leather earlier. It gradually paved the way for use of paper. The art was used as a main medium of public instruction during those days and spiritual tales were told through it. Mostly, the artists concentrated on themes from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Even in Indo-China, themes from the Ramayana were being shows. Prabal works in pen and ink (an exhibition of his sketches on French buildings will open tomorrow), brush and canvas, pastels, oils and mixed media. Tomorrow he will release his latest book and also hold an exhibition of pen and ink drawings which he made during his stay in France recently.
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Istri Satsang Sabha
donates Rs 50,000 CHANDIGARH “We have been contributing for various social causes from time to time besides contributing regularly for the expansion of the Sector 8 Gurdwara building and also for the free services being provided there,” sabha members said maintaining that after the quake, an appeal was made to all members of the sabha to donate for the victims. “Members contributed voluntarily. Since we do kirtan at gurdwara sahib every Wednesday and also perform “Sukhmani Sahib path” by turn at the residence of people, we
collect some funds given to the sabha by people voluntarily. Along with this members contributed some money from their own account for cause. Most of the members of the sabha are in their late 60s, or early 70s. |
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Shivalikview roundabout best CHANDIGARH According to information available, the roundabout of the Punjab State Cooperative Milk Products Federation Limited(old Labour Chowk) bagged the second position. Strawberry Fields School, Sector 24, won the first position in
best school campus maintained category. The Traders Association, Sector 8-B, bagged the first prize in the best open space maintained in the market. In the amateurs category, Ms Satinder Dhawan of Sector 9 was awarded the first prize in the large gardens having an area of over 2 kanals. The garden of Mr Ram Dass Moriya of Sector 5 won the second prize. In the area over 1 kanal but less than 2 kanals, Mr Manjit Verma of Sector 8 won the first prize and Gurdwara Patshai 10 in Sector 8 the second prize. In the small garden having area less than 1 kanal, Dr Arunanshu of the PGI complex bagged the first prize and Col Balwant Singh of Sector 9 the second prize. In the large garden contest, which was open to the government, semi-government institutions and private nurseries, the garden of the Deputy Director of
Horticulture (CPWD), Kendriya Sadan, Sector 9, was placed first. The garden of
CFSL, CPWD, Sector 36, secured the second position. In the small garden category having an area less than 4 kanals, the office of the Accountant-General, Punjab (A&E), Sector 17, was placed first, and office of the Gp Capt S.P. Singh of the 12 Wing of the Air Force Station was placed second. |
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Vibrant
daffodils smile CHANDIGARH, Feb 21 — March brings breezes sharp and shrill, shakes
the dancing daffodils —
How and where to grow When ready for growth, choose a well-drained, sunny place. Hillsides and raised beds are the best. Drainage is the key. Spade at least 12 inches deep and improve your clay with well-rotted compost, soil amendment or planting mix and raise the bed. Slightly acidic soil is the best. Plant the daffodils so that their top (pointed end) is at least two times as deep as the bulb is high. Plant bulbs deeper in sandy soil than in clay. Daffodils need lots of water while they are growing (but if being grown in dry hot climate, they should be meagerly watered). Even during the period of growth, wash the bulbs thoroughly and let them dry completely (at least a week, out of the sun). Put them in onion sacks and hang them in the coolest place you can find until November. Good air circulation will keep storage rot at a minimum. The pleasure of watching this flower of the hills grow in your small backyard would indeed be great, and especially so if you have been nurturing the plant for a good five months. For Mrs Mukta Khaira, a Sector 8 resident who brought the bulbs when she returned from California in September, February 8 was a day of double celebration. One, her daffodil variety Angel’s Whisper bloomed after five months of sleeping, and two they bloomed on the day her grandson was born. When this reporter went to her place to watch the colourful delight, Mrs Khaira talked about how the flowers had taken so long to bloom. “When I first planted the bulbs, there were no signs of growth till December. I thought they were dead, but slow watering helped and the first signs of flowering appeared in the first week of January,” she said. On February 8, there were two flowers. Then four more. And after some more days there were 30. Apart from daffodils, Mrs Khaira also has iris and hyacinths in her garden. As for daffodils — even after they grew, securing them was not an easy job for her. As the flower cannot tolerate even a slight rise in temperature, the pots had to be shifted to shaded areas everyday. Now, however, they have started withering. While the daffodil is essentially a low temperature flower, here is some information for those who want to grow them. The best source is the Northern California Daffodil Society which holds daffodil shows in March. You can write for their catalogues to them in late March or April and order and pay for the bulbs in April or May. Entire information on growing this flower is available at
www.daffodil.org. All about daffodils * They are at least 25 species, some with a great many different forms and several natural hybrids. In addition to this, the Daffodil Data Bank lists 13,000 hybrids. * Bulbs are priced from around $ 1 up to $ 100, depending on the newness or scarcity of a cultivator. * Under good growing conditions, the daffodils should outlast any of us. Daffodils multiply in two ways: asexual cloning (bulb division) where exact copies of the flower will result, and sexually (from seed) where new, different flowers will result * Flowering season of the flower is between six weeks to six months depending on where you live. * Daffodils will grow in shade of deciduous trees because they have finished flowering by then and the foliage has begun to mature by the time deciduous trees leaf out. More information about daffodils can be had from www.daffodil.org. |
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Discovery of India on
three-wheeler CHANDIGARH The trio — Ms Martina Elsa, Mr Bruno Bass and Mr Daniel Banziger — who landed in New Delhi last month, had already travelled over 500 km in Delhi, UP and Himachal, besides Chandigarh in the three-wheeler purchased by them from New Delhi. In an informal chat with TNS here, Ms Elsa conceded though travelling in a three-wheeler driven by one of them was “funny” yet the people had been very friendly to them. She narrated an incident at Kotwara in UP when one Tiwari family played host to them when their vehicle broke down. “India has wonderful culture and people which in a way are quite different from the western world,” said Ms Elsa, for whom it is the third trip to the country. Talking about Chandigarh, they said it was an interesting city and finding destinations was quite easy because of the sector system developed by Le Corbusier. However, they complained that finding a nice hotel was quite a task in the city. It was only through the efforts of Mr Narinder Singh, a local tourism promoter, that they were able to find accommodation in a gurdwara, they said, adding that purpose of their tour was to have fun and adventure. Prof Yashpal to
open seminar CHANDIGARH, February 21 — Professor Yashpal, Scientist Emeritus and a former Chairman of the University Grants Commission, will formally inaugurate the three-day workshop-cum-symposium on "Information technology for social sciences" at the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development here tomorrow.The workshop-cum-symposium is being organised jointly by the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development and the National Social Sciences Documentation Centre and is sponsored by the Indian Council o f Social Science Research and WOTRO, the Netherlands Foundation for the Advancement of Tropical Research. |
15 kg opium
seized CHANDIGARH According to the police sources, 21-year-old, Vinod Kumar, was arrested while en-route Ropar, Punjab. It is learnt that opium recovered from his possession had been brought from Rajasthan and was to be supplied in Punjab. The police said Vinod Kumar revealed that he had brought the opium from his home town and had been asked to deliver it in Ropar. He will be produced in the local court tomorrow.
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PU hostel intruder brought to city CHANDIGARH According to the police sources Aporv Singh, alias Sonu, alias Donald, had confessed that he had entered Mata Gujri Hostel on the night of February 14. He claimed that he entered the hostel while he was drunk. According to the sources Aporva who is a resident of the PU campus had entered the hostel from the hostel’s mess — canteen side and made an escape through broken glass in one of the bathrooms. His identity was reportedly established after the police made a sketch of him after getting inputs from the hostel residents who had seen him. He was booked under Sections 354 and 452 of the Indian Penal Code. |
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14-yr-old nabbed with stolen goods CHANDIGARH It is learnt that the accused, Raju, a resident of Patel Nagar, New Delhi, was arrested by the police this afternoon and has been booked under Sections 380 and 411 of the IPC. Jeep
impounded: Student
injured: Booked
for fraud: Assault: Gambling: Car
stolen: Body found |
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Couple booked for threatening official LALRU According to sources the couple — Baljit Kaur and Gian Singh — threatened and restrained Mr Daljit Singh Gill, a subdivisional officer with Dera Bassi Mandi Board from doing his duty. However, the couple said the department was laying road on their agricultural land and had not given them any compensation. Baljit Kaur alleged that the SDO had thrashed her husband. A case under Sections 353, 156 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code has been registered with Lalru police station against the accused. |
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