The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

EDUCATION

Scheme for school sites
Tribune News Service

SAS NAGAR, Feb 2 — The Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA) will allot sites to educational institutions for nursery, primary, middle, high and senior secondary schools at subsidised rates at its urban estates in SAS Nagar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Bathinda and Patiala.

A decision in this regard was taken at a meeting of the Finance and Accounts Committee of PUDA, chaired by the Punjab Housing and Urban Development Minister, Dr Upinderjit Kaur. Initially, around five sites in each of the urban estates will be offered under the allotment scheme.

The Chief Administrator of PUDA, Mr K.B.S.Sidhu, said the sites would be allotted through a draw of lots or on first-deposited-first-served-basis. The Finance and Accounts Committee has also decided that the successful allottees would be required to pay 15 per cent of the total cost within 90 days of the issuing of the letter of intent instead of 25 per cent charged earlier. The allottees would be given a moratorium of two years in the payment of the remaining instalments.

The scheme will open on February 7 and close on March 23. The applicants have been divided in to commercial and non-commercial categories and land rates have been fixed accordingly.

Mr Sidhu said each applicant will have to fulfil a set of guidelines. There would be no bar on an institution to apply for more than one site in the same urban estate. In another decision, the application fee had been reduced to Rs 50,000 . The other persons who attended the meeting were Mr Ranjit Singh Balian, State Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Mr K.R. Lakhnpal, Principal Secretary, Department of Finance, and senior officials of PUDA.

Students educated on traffic rules
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Feb 2 — As part of the ongoing traffic awareness fortnight an exhibition-cum-interaction programme was held at the Government College for Girls, Sector 42, here today. The programme was organised in association with Freedom India, a social organisation.

The drive would cover all the major schools and colleges of the city and the students would be educated on the need for obeying traffic rules and regulations. They would be shown video films on road safety and officers would be at hand to answer all the queries from the students.

The main hall of the college was jampacked with students and many eager ones posed some questions on the growing menace of rickshaws and other slow moving traffic on city roads.

Those who spoke on the occasion included Mr Alok Kumar, ASP, Traffic, and Mr Sagar Preet, ASP, Central. Mr Ankur Kapoor, President of the organisation, was also present on the occasion.

A similar interaction would be organised at the MCM DAV College, Sector 36, tomorrow where Mr Baldev Singh, SP, will be the chief guest.

SPORT

PU athletics meet opens
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Feb 2 — The 40th Annual Athletics Meet of the Panjab University campus was held here today. It was inaugurated by Mr V.K. Bansal, Dean Students Welfare. Prizes were distributed by Prof Ashok Saini, Dean University Instruction.

Neetu (22 points) and Vipan (20 points) of Physical Education Department emerged best athletes. Winners in various events were as follows: girls — 50 m: Kanwalpreet; 100 m: Neetu; 200 m: Neetu; 400 m: Kanwalpreet; broad jump: Neetu; high jump: Neetu; shot put: Gurminder; discus throw: Gurminder; javelin throw: Neetu; three-legged race: Kanwalpreet and Paramjeet; 4x100 m relay: Kanwalpreet, Aarti, Alka and Rashmi; boys — 100 m: Sandeep Singh Rana; 200 m: Vipan; 400 m: Vipan; 800 m: Vipan; 1500 m: Vipan; broad jump: Jodhbir; high jump: Dinesh; triple jump: Inderjeet; shot put: Amar; discus throw: Jodhvir; hammer throw: Adarsh; javelin throw: Lakhwant; three-legged race: Jai Prakash; 4x100m relay: Sandeep and team.

GGS beat MCMDAV: On the second day of the Panjab University inter-zonal volleyball tournament for women, being played here at PU grounds, GGS College for Women, Chandigarh, defeated MCMDAV College for Women, Chandigarh, 25-22, 25-16, 19-25, 25-12, while SMS Karamjot College for Women, Miani, defeated GNN College, Doraha.

Yuvraj congratulated: The UT Cricket Association congratulated Yuvraj Singh for being man of the series in the recent Youth World Cup Cricket held in Sri Lanka, according to a press note.

COURTS

Bail plea hearing today
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Feb 2 — The bail application of Sunil Behl, who had been posing himself as the Vice-President, of the World Bank, and his wife Savita, will come up before Mr Justice N.K. Khichi of the Punjab and Haryana High Court tomorrow.

It may be recalled that Behls are facing a number of cheating cases. In some cases, Behl had allegedly posed himself as the Vice-President of the World Bank and also allegedly forged signatures of some top officials, including those of the World Bank.

CULTURE

New kid on Punjabi pop scene
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Feb 2 — He is a new kid on the Punjabi pop music block. Meet Kulbir, an upcoming singer on the pop scene, whose “Ja ja ve” music video from his debut album — “Tenun nachdi vekh ke” is on the countdown shows of almost all major channels.

“It has been a dream come true for me. This is my first album and I am keeping my fingers crossed. My hopes depend upon the audience as it can make or break an artiste,” Kulbir said, while addressing a press conference in connection with the release of his cassette by “Catrack”, a local audio company.

Coming from a family related to renowned “ragi” Bhai Harjinder Singh (Srinagarwale), the Jalandhar-based singer claimed that he did not have any formal training in classical or semi-classical music. “It was only through God’s grace and blessings of my parents and good wishes of friends that I have been able to release my first album”, he said.

In fact Kulbir, a computer professional, worked for a reputed company in Dubai for five years, before forming his own band — MK 1 — which was the first Bhangra group in Dubai and comprised band members from several countries of the world.

The music for the album has been provided by veteran Punjabi music director, Surinder Bachan. In fact for Bachan it has been to second successful pop album in a span of about three months — the first being Babbu Mann’s “Tu meri Miss India”. While avoiding comparison between the two albums, as they had different styles, he expressed the hope that both the albums would fare very well in the already-crowded music market.

Gaurav Trehan, a noted TV personality, said the video of the heart-touching traditional video of “Ja ja ve” had deliberately been kept “clean” as obscene videos could not be watched by the entire family. It was a gamble to shoot the video of an emotional song as other tracks are fast foot-tapping numbers, he said.

He claimed that it was the first video which was being screened in the theatres of Punjab during the intervals of much-acclaimed feature film — “Shaheed Udham Singh”. It is also the maiden venture of the director, Azeem Parkar, an ad films director. The lyrics have been penned by Devinder Singh and Kulbir himself.

Gaurav informed Catrack, which had mainly been releasing Punjabi music cassettes till now, that the firm will shortly come out with a Hindi pop album by a local singer — Muktesh Diwan.

Renaissance 2000 brings forth creativity of students
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Feb 2 — The four day Art Fest — Renaissance 2000 — which began at the Government College of Art, Sector 10, today has brought to the fore the creativity and artistic expression of students from various streams. The event which has been organised after a gap of seven years, is mainly a youth-oriented celebration. It has provided students an opportunity to interact amongst themselves on a common platform.

As many as 250 students from 10 colleges of Chandigarh and SAS Nagar are participating in this fourday fest, which was inaugurated by Prof Prem Singh, an eminent artist and Principal of College of Art here today.

While various competitions have been organised from the first day today, stalls would be put up only on the last two days. Generally, a majority of the students and art lovers are happy about the organisation of such an event after a gap of so many years. There are others who feel that keeping in mind the reputation of this prestigious college enjoys, it should have been organised in a different manner. They suggest that some eminent artist should have been invited to give a demonstration of their work, and discussions could have also been organised on the same.

The following are the results of various competitions held today in order of merit:

Still Life: (Professional Colleges): Manjari Aggarwal and Rishi Chanana of Government College of Art bagged the first and the second prize and Parmeet of NIIFT, Mohali, bagged the third prize.

Still Life (Non-Professional): Gurdeep Dhiman (Government College for Men, Sector 11); Gagan Khanuja (GCG-11) and Satwant Kaur (GCG-42).

Creative Composition (Professional Colleges): Jasleen Chopra (NIIFT, Mohali); Sakshi Malhotra (Government College of Art, Sector 10) and Sandeep Nandwani (College of Architecture).

Creative Composition ( Non-Professional): Gayatri (GCG-11); Ayushi (GCG-11) and Anupama ( Government Polytechnic for Women, Sector 10).

Collage Making ( Professional Colleges): Jigmat and Dhruv (NIIFT, Mohali); Monika Angrish (Government College of Art); Sukhtaj Singh Gill and Harmeet Kaur (College of Architecture, Sector 12).

Collage Making (Non-Professional Colleges): Pooja Puri and Poonam Garg (GCG-11); Manuj Sharma (GCM-11); Neeru Saini and Pooja Soni (GCG-42).

Group dance: Government College of Art, Sector 10; NIIFT, Mohali; Punjab Engineering College, Sector 12.

Prop-Act: DAV College, Sector 10 (Manu Sharma and Siddharth); Government College of Art (Sumeet and Michaelangelo) ; NIIFT, Mohali (Anupam and Rina). The performance of Capri and Rohit of PEC also deserves special mention.

Tempting delicacies tickle taste buds
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Feb 2 — The aroma greets you even before you enter the Sector 42 Food Crafts Institute. And even if you cannot savour the castles of cakes, six-foot puddings and yummy pies, displayed during Hospitality Crafts Exhibition 2000, which began today, the sight itself is a treat.

"Tempting" is perhaps the only word to describe the international and regional cuisine on display —delicious Mexican enchilada and Italian pasta, besides special seafood and colourful mocktails.

The exhibition which was inaugurated by the UT Home Secretary, Mr N. K. Jain, showcases the talent of the students and the skills taught to them in the departments of bakery confectionery, cookery, food and beverage service, housekeeping and front office.

The Bakery Department has on display sweet surprises like the castle cake, a 6-ft theme cake showing a Swiss village, chocolates, souffles, parfaits, mousse, breads.

On display are traditional dishes of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Kashmir, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. The international cuisine includes Mexican food — enchilada, nachos and tacos and Italian food, spaghetti.

The Food and Beverage Service Department has an interesting display, showcasing bar equipment, glassware, cocktails, mocktails, table services and napkin folds for special occasion food services. Among the napkin folds on display are lotus blossom, oriental fan, candle fold, pocket napkin, circular napkin, bishop's cap, peacock tail and step folding. They had laid the tables differently to mark occasions like X-mas.

Students of the Front Office Department have prepared models of various types of hotels and computer network system prevailing in these hotels. They have also set up a tourist information counter. A hotel-commerce counter has also been set up which explains the reservation system of various hotels abroad through the Internet. Through the models, they have also showed the growth of the hotel industry from 1825 to 1900 to the 20th century to the new millennium.

Besides this, a career counselling desk has been set up to give information regarding hotel education to the visitors, students and their parents.

The response to the exhibition on the first day today was good. The exhibition would remain open tomorrow also from 10 am to 5 pm.