Panchkula, October 30
The annual three-day All-India Mahatma Hansraj Aryan Youth Festival organised by the Arya Vidya Sabha under the aegis of DAV Managing Committee got off to a colourful start at DAV School, Sector 8, here today.

As many as 300 participants drawn from 30 DAV schools of Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Samalakha, Pantipat, Pehowa, Ambala, Surajpur, Panchkula, Yamunanagar, Chandigarh put their best foot forward to make the contests a lively show. Interestingly, students experimented to blend tradition with modernity and modern to convey messages relevant today.

Colourful rangolis were made on the floors of the school, students emphasised the need to save the girl child and tried to educate visitors about the evil of female foeticide. Also, religious notes filled the air as participants competed for position in the category of reciting Ved mantras followed by shabads and bhajans.

Earlier, the festival started with Justice Mr Bahri, also the vice-president of the DAV Managing Committee, lighting the lamp. The students of the host school presented a Sarswati vandana.

The organising committee said the winning teams at the zonal-level competitions would compete at the national level. The festival of the Haryana and UT zone is being organised by DAV Sector-8.

The festival will include competitions in the following events. - recitation of Ved Mantra, light vocal (solo), devotional / bhajan/ shabad (group), on the spot painting, making greeting cards and rangoli, debate and declamation in English and Hindi, qawali, skit, patriotic and welcome song (group), classical vocal (solo), quiz, classical dance (solo) and folk Dance (group).

Chandigarh, October 30
The concluding day of the four-day Panjab University youth and heritage festival Chandigarh Zone-B was marked with exuberant performances.

In the morning session, classical dance and group dance competitions left the audience asking for more.

The evening session had more in store with folk dances by participants from different colleges. All the teams gave spellbound performances.

Prof R.C. Sobti, PU the vice-chancellor, was the chief guest for the evening session and gave away the prizes.

The results are: classical dance: 1 Shalu, Govt. College for Girls-Sec 11, 2 Shikha Rana, GGS College for Women-Sec 26, 3 Shiny, GCG-42 and Priyanka, Govt. Home Science College-Sec-10; group dance: 1 Govt. College for Girls-Sector 11, 2 Dev Samaj College for Women-Sec 45, 3 Govt. College for Girls-Sec 42; group dance (individual): 1 Suman, Govt College for Girls-Sec 11, 2 Poonam, Dev Samaj College for Women-Sec 45, 3 Shweta, Govt. College for Girls-Sec 42; quiz:1 MCM DAV College for Women-Sec 36, 2 Govt. College for Girls-Sec 42, 3 Govt. College for Girls-Sec 11; folk dance: 1 Govt. College for Girls-Sec 42, 2 Govt. College for Girls-Sec 11; folk dance (individual):1 Loveleen, Govt. College for Girls-Sec11, 2 Suman, Govt. College for Girls-Sec 11, 3 Priyanka, Govt. College for Girls-Sec 42; giddha: 1 MCM DAV College for Women-Sec 36, 2 Dev Samaj College for Women-Sec 45, 3 Govt. College for Girls-Sec 11, giddha (individual) 1 Gurbinder, MCM DAV College for Women-Sec 36, 2 Pardeep Kaur, Dev Samaj College for Women-Sec 45 and 3 Ramandeep, Govt. College for Girls-Sec 11.

Chandigarh, October 30
Government-aided educational institutes and religious bodies may have a reason to cheer in the coming week. The councillors of the Municipal Corporation are planning to moot a proposal to exempt such institutes from property tax and service tax.

According to sources, Panjab University has to pay a property tax to the tune of about Rs 90 lakh payable since 2004, while SD school, sector 32, has to pay about Rs 9 lakh. These institutes, along with others, had given a representation to the councillors, MC and the UT administration stating that as they were educational institutes they should be excluded from the ambit of service tax.

They argued that as they were being aided by the centre if they were to pay tax, they would be left with no choice but to tax the 
students.

This representation was considered by the councillors in a meeting with the Mayor on Friday. It was agreed that the issue would be brought up in the house.

Property tax is calculated at 3 per cent while the service tax is 2.25 per cent on the rental value of the property. To increase its resources, the MCC had decided in 2004 to implement the property tax. Recovery of which started from January 2005.

While some organisations had deposited their tax, many institutes did not as they could not calculate their covered area. The MCC had recently employed the services of the PEC to help calculate the covered area of various institutes and how much tax was payable by them. Notices were thereafter sent to them to make the required payments as per the calculations.

Mr Subhash Chawla, ex-Mayor informed that the heads of various institutes had approached various councillors and brought the issue to their notice.

“We have spoken to Mr Pawan Kumar Bansal, Union Minister of State for Finance, and also to Mr Surinder Singh, Mayor, MCC.

“The congress councillors have decided in principle to grant the exemption to these institutes and will be bringing a table agenda in front of the general house meeting on Oct 31.” he said.

When contacted, Mr Surinder Singh, Mayor, MCC, stated, “If we tax all government-aided educational institutes, the cost of education will go up. The aim of providing education to all will be defeated. We will give relief to such institutes and will also consider the case of religious bodies.” 

Chandigarh, October 30
The Dedekend team bagged first prize while Bhaskarcharya was placed at second place in the mathematics quiz conducted by students of Class IX and X at Sharda Sarvhitkari Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 40-D, here, today.

The contest was between four teams comprising four students each in Aryabhata, C.V. Raman. Bhaskaracharya and Dedekend teams. The different rounds of the contest were based on application of mathematics.

Chandigarh, October 30
Divorced to the very idea of single societies and religious groups not tying the knot with the concept of inter-caste marriages in India, two Chandigarh-based advocate brothers have taken up the issue at an international forum.

Attending the “12th National Family Law Conference” at Perth in Western Australia, Anil and Ranjit Malhotra have asserted that opposition to inter-caste marriages is not only against the Fundamental Rights to equality, freedom, and personal liberty, but also violates the Directive Principles of State Policy.

Rather, the Directive Principles categorically say that the State will strive to promote the welfare of the people in a social order which completely guarantees not only justice, but also social, economic and political equality.

The development is significant as cases of honour killings arising out of inter-caste marriages are not uncommon in this part of the region.

Other vital issues like the existence of unconstitutional extra-judicial courts; illegal child removal; need for a unified civil code; and enforcement of judgments and orders of foreign courts in India arising out of matrimonial disputes were also taken up by the two during the five-day conference.

The intention behind organising the conference, attended by over a thousand lawyers from across the world, was to discuss and deliberate different issues of family law problems occurring globally. The Malhotras were the only Indians attending the conference which concluded on October 26.

In their paper “Family Law and Religion — the Indian Experience” presented during the conference, the two asserted that inter-caste marriages were, in fact, in national interest. “Archaic practices” like opposition to such marriages retard the pace of growth and reverse pr These practices not only eliminate the spirit of equality, but also end up in honour killing in so many cases.

“In India when young men and women marry outside their castes or communities, their action evokes strong sentiments and even results in honour killing though there is no bar to inter-caste marriages under any codified marriage law,” the two have asserted.

“In a recent decision rendered by the Supreme Court in Lata Singh vs State of UP, it has been held that caste system is a curse on the nation and needs to be destroyed for the better. Acts of violence and threats against such inter-caste couples are wholly illegal and those who commit them should be severely punished,” the two say.

They add: “The administration and police authorities all over the country have been directed by the Supreme Court to ensure that the inter-caste couples are neither exposed to threat and acts of violence, nor subjected to harassment…. The court’s message is clear. India of the 21 st century cannot be built on the basis of caste. For emerging as a powerful nation, inter-caste and inter-religious marriages have to be accepted by society and a heavy hand is required to check the menace”.

They conclude by saying: “Besides this, we have asserted that an indigenous Indian law, applicable to all communities coexisting democratically, is needed in the country. In fact, codification of a `Unified Civil Code’ is the ultimate solution. Accommodating personal laws of all religions under such a code may be an uphill task and may require time, but the legislature will ultimately have to perform this onerous duty of compiling the code”.

Chandigarh, October 30
They are fiercely proud of their ethnicity and their cultural richness and despite the boundaries drawn by man, folk ensembles from Poland and Bulgaria swept the evening with their vibrant performances, proving that art really has no boundaries.

In fact the two ensembles, the Polish ‘Kyczera’ and the Bulgarian ‘Strandja’ were assembled in their respective countries as a way of preserving their lush traditional heritage.

“The only way we could do this was by celebrating what is beautiful in our culture” said the two directors of the ensembles, separately.

‘Kyczera’ created in 1991 by Jerzy Starzynski comprises members who are descendants of Lemko people.

“We propagate the unique folklore of this ethnic minority that lived in the South of Poland in the Carpathians until 1944. It was then that the Communist regime, in a bid to remove their existence deported them to the Ukraine and the western and northern parts of Poland. But the Lemkos did not fade away. They kept their ethos alive and today this ensemble of young school-going people honour their history with authentic and traditional dances, music and instruments.

“All we want is to live our lives around our culture and take it to every corner of the world,” says Starzynski earnestly. But that does not mean that his culture is binding in form. “We derive our performances from Polish, Ukrainian, Slovak and Hungarian influences so from Lemko weddings to a potpourri of regional traditions, from sentimental waltzes to ‘shtayerky’, the characteristic folklore of the South-East Poland to polkas, they do it all.

Accompanied by violins, clarinet and contrabass and attired in colourful and spirited outfits, ‘Kyczera’ is more an independent social and cultural society propagating ethnicity without bigoted divisions.

On the other hand ‘Strandja’, named after a mountain in the region of Bourgas in Bulgaria is a professional ensemble established in 1965 to investigate, save and transform stage performances of the songs, music and dance folklore of the Strandja region and the country as a whole.

Led currently by its chief artistic director, composer Stefan Chapkanov, ‘Strandja’ weaves into its performances the joy of life through even the most mundane aspects drawing inspiration from even daily chores of people.

“How they live, what they make of their lives and that includes the happy and sad moments are all highlighted in our performances,” explains Chapkanov.

With a motley mix of traditional musical instruments like the ‘kaval’ (a wooden flute), ‘gadulka’ (bowed instrument similar to a violin), ‘gaida’ (bagpipe with one drone), ‘tampura’ (guitar) and the ‘tupan’ (a large drum) they produce sounds that are plaintive and sweet bringing their inherent love for music and dance alive.

The evening was organised by Sri Guru Gobind Singh College, Sector 26, in collaboration with the Punjab Cultural Promotion Council of India as an international folklore festival.