Jalandhar, October 11
City women are all set to celebrate the festival season beginning with the auspicious Navratras in style. Adding fun to the ceremonial fasting and feasting is their mantra as they are busy learning the racy steps of dandiya raas and garba. Picking up colourful ethnic garba costumes and chunky jewellery and dolling up at the nearest beauty saloons the women say they are specially getting ready for the festival of karva chauth which is just around the corner.

Food is not a worry for them as they are ready to enjoy special Navratra thalis at local hotels. Free from the kitchen they are doing much more to make the festival memorable. City girls and young women with dance sticks in their hands have been rehearsing regularly on popular numbers like “Ramji ki nikli sawari” or folk numbers like “Mehndi te aayo, paawan hai, rang gayo Gujarat re”.

In sync with the new beats they are also rehearsing on modern dandiya versions mixed with disco steps. Falguni Pathak’s songs like “Tune payal jo chhankayi” rule the dance floors in city.

Vivek Aggarwal of Vivek Aggarwal’s Institute of Dance and Grooming says he is getting new trainees every day for training in dandiya only. “Though there are not many dandiya shows taking place in city they perform it in clubs and kitty parties. Girls prefer clamping the sticks at jagrans and even wedding functions held in this season,” says Aggarwal.

“For karva chauth we are going to organise two events on October 27 at the institute and another on October 29 at Hotel Maya, where girls will be competing for dandiya raas.”

“Learning dandiya is not only for the festival season as the girls are very serious about getting their steps right as they want perfection,” says Aggarwal.

“I have been looking for a nice maroon colour garba dress which I can wear at a party in my friend’s place,” says Ritu Bhatia, a college student.

Looking good is as always big concern for the dance enthusiasts as the girls are taking complete beauty care packages. Nidhi Sidhu, director of Clara International says, “We have started a number of packages combining various treatment therapies especially for this season. Customers can pick any of the six services out of a total of eight for a price range of Rs 999, signifying the Navratra numbers. Besides, there are anti ageing and anti-pigmentation packages. Our staff has geared up for mehndi and nail art for which we are expecting greater rush.”

With the special festival diet for the Navratras the city hotels are not far behind as they are offering special Navratra thalis. Most women attending kitty parties or coming otherwise in the season give orders only for Navratra special food says Pardeep, general manager of Hotel President.

“We are starting special Navratra thalis complete with four paranthas, rice, aloo bhaji and a sweet dish for our customers. The special thalis will be served on all nine days,” he adds.

Kapurthala, October 11
In a move benefiting a number of residents of the princely district, the Kapuathala police today formally launched its website, allowing former to register their complaints online.

The website, www.kapurthalapolice.net,where the complainants can be submittted, was launched by the DIG Jalandhar range Narinderpal Singh.

Talking to The Tribune, SSP Rakesh Agarwal said FIRs, except in the matters related to the matrimonial and property disputes, would be lodged on the basis of the complaints filed on the website. “We have a special complaint box column on the protal for teh same,” he added.

“FIRs in the cases related to matrimonial and property disputes would be registered after conducting the preliminarily inquiries into the matter in order to avoid the misuse,” he added.

“The website would be updated daily. The in-charge of computer cell has been appointed as the nodal officer for thepurpose. Apart from submitting the complaints, the users can also check their status by clicking the complaint status column. This would especially benefit the NRIs from the district,” said Agarwal.

The website also has a column having details, including photographs, of the missing persons and unidentified bodies. Information on the structure of the police and important telephone numbers of fficers have also been provided, said the SSP.

Useful columns like passport verification, community policing, offences, security tips, are also part of the portal. 

Jalandhar, October 11
Panic gripped the Deputy Administrative Complex (DAC) at Preet Nagar on Ladowali Road today when someone called up and said a bomb had been planted in the office. Later, it turned out to be a hoax call.

SP (city-I) S.K. Kalia told The Tribune that an unknown person called up the DC’s steno at around 11.15 am and informed her that he had overheard two persons talking to each other outside the DAC office that they had planted a bomb in the complex, which would explode within two hours.

Following which, the DAC complex was immediately vacated as a precautionary measure. Sniffer dog and bomb disposal squads reached there and searched the complex but no bomb was found.

To a query, Kalia said no case had been registered against the hoax caller, but the police was trying to trace the call so that the caller could be identified. The caller told the steno that he was calling from a PCO, he added. 

Phagwara, October 11
More than 150 trees were allegedly axed by around six unidentified miscreants at nearby Mannwali village last evening.

Villagers led by Rajinder Singh lodged a complaint at the Sadar police station complaining about some armed miscreants axing trees with sharp edged weapons.

The villagers complained that the miscreants had allegedly axed the trees to make way for their combine after it dashed against an electric pole near the residence of Rajinder Singh. Power supply remained disrupted in several parts of the village for several hours till the pole was replaced by PSEB employees. Villagers said the felled trees were around 15-years-old.

Phagwara, October 11
In the era of technology, the postal department at Phagwara is still working with old technology. During a visit, to the post office on ‘World Postal Day,’ this Tribune correspondent found a horse-cart parked before post office’s main gate.

The horse-cart owner Joginder Singh said the postal department has hired the cart and pays him Rs 5,500 per month. He said he takes four rounds of railway stations daily, two to collect mail and two to dispatch mail. In addition, he takes four rounds of the local bus stand and surrounding villages to dispatch and collect mails.

Expressing dissatisfaction over the contract amount, the cart owner said with the meager amount it’s tough to feed horse and maintain cart.

When the postmaster B.R. Arora was asked about it, he revealed the horse-cart was engaged by the department to transfer mail. He said there was no plan to replace the horse-cart with any motor vehicle.

Adding to the department’s woes is the staff crunch as no appointments were been made since long.

During investigations it was found that the post office situated in Hadiabad, a sub town of Phagwara, has been closed on July 1 due to revenue losses. Another sub post office at Mehli gate has been shifted to the general post office premises, which is at the distance of 1.5 kms, causing inconvenience to the people.

When the correspondent asked about the “World Postal Day,” most of the postal employees working in the main post office expressed their ignorance. In fact, no function was held by the post office to mark the day.

Meanwhile, the postmaster said the lotteries tickets of Punjab government would now also be available at post offices with immediate effect. Besides, Divali bumper lottery tickets were too available at the post offices.

People can submit their telephone bills and application for passport. Apart from these facilities, postal life insurance and rural postal life insurance were also available for the people.

Jalandhar, October 11
Farmers of the district will be able to avail loans to the tune of Rs 1462 crore out of a total amount of Rs 2754 crore to be disbursed under various schemes.

DC A.S. Pannu revealed this after presiding over a meeting of bankers and officers tasked with the sanction of loans and programmes of the government here on Wednesday.

In addition to the farmers, loans worth Rs 432 crore would be extended for the small scale industry (SSI), Rs 566 crore for core sectors and Rs 292 for the various non-priority sectors.

“Till June 2007, the banks cleared loans totaling Rs 299 crore for the agriculture sector, Rs 59. 59 core for the SSIs, and Rs 90. 86 crore for various other sectors,” he added.

The DC said he had asked the banks to give loans to the poorer sections of the society on a priority basis so that they could use the money to improve their livelihood.

He said the banks should have opened the accounts of all old age pension holders since the government had decided that the recipients would be given their dues through banks only. “In view of their meager resources and the age factor, the persons availing the benefit should be dealt with compassion and understanding by the bank staff,” he added.

The administration also plans to constitute 500 self-help groups in the district besides ensuring that every member of a family has a bank account.

Pannu also exhorted the bank officials to diligently meet the targets set by the government for the betterment of the target groups.

Others who attended the meeting include SC Sharma, zonal manager, UCO Bank, B.S. Mathur, lead district manager, RBI, Y P Aggarwal, district development manager, Nabard, Raj Kapoor, lead district manager, UCO Bank, and V K Kalsi, lead bank officer. 

Jalandhar, October 11
A talent hunt was held at Government College of Education here. Nearly 88 students participated in the hunt which had literary, music, dance and drama contests.