180 liquor pouches seized from women
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, Dec 15 — The police has arrested two women on the charge of possessing 180 pouches of liquor.

According to police sources, Rekha and Nirmala, residents of Janta Colony, Sector 25, were arrested from the PU gate near Sector 14 with 90 pouches of liquor and from near the colony with 90 pouches of liquor, respectively.

Separate case under Section 61/1/ 14 of the Excise Act has been registered at the West police station.

Thefts: Mr Sham Lal, a resident of Sector 7, Panchkula, reported that his car, HR-05-P-0030, was stolen from Mani Majra where he had gone to attend a function.

Mr Mehmood Lukman, a resident of Burail, reported that his motor cycle, UP-11-4693, was stolen from his residence.

Cases under Section 379, IPC, have been registered at the Mani Majra and South police stations, respectively.

PANCHKULA

Dowry case: The police has registered a case against Anil Kumar, Mohini Devi, Ajay and Ram Chand, residents of Paschim Vihar, New Delhi, for allegedly demanding dowry from Nisha, a resident of Sector 15 here. The case has been registered under Sections 406, 498 A and 120 B against those named in the complaint.

PU youth festival inaugurated
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Dec 15 — The zonal youth festival for the postgraduate classes of Panjab University was inaugurated today at the Dev Samaj College of Education, Sector 36, by Mr S.K. Singh, Inspector General of Police of Chandigarh.

It is for the first time that such a zone has been created under the Zonal Youth Festivals conducted by the university. About 350 students of 15 colleges of Punjab and the city participated in the festival.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr S.K. Singh said music and literature played important roles in everyone's life. The evening session was presided over by Mr Gurbachan Singh Bhullar, Editor of Punjabi Tribune.

The results of various competitions are as follows: Poetry — Anita Rani, Government College, Hoshiarpur (1); Harjap Singh, Government College, Hoshiarpur (2); Harpreet, Khalsa College for Women, Ludhiana (3).

Short story — Saraswati, Government College, Hoshiarpur (1); Navjot Kaur, DAV College, Abohar (2); Tejinder, Government College, Sector 11, Chandigarh (3); Essay writing — Gagandeep, Khalsa College for Women, Ludhiana (1); Mamta Dhawan, DAV College, Abohar (2); Pamela Chadha, Government College, Sector 11, Chandigarh (3).

Classical music (vocal) — Sushmita, Government College Girls, Sector 11, Chandigarh (1); instrumental music — Nitika (Santoor), Government College for Girls, Sector 11, Chandigarh (1); Pradeep Soni (flute), DAV College, Abohar (2).

Group shabad-bhajan — DAV College, Abohar (1); GCG, Sector 11, Chandigarh (2); Ramgarhia Girls College, Ludhiana (3); individual — Vivek Kumar, DAV College, Abohar (1); Shalini Sharma, GCG Sector 11, Chandigarh (2); Sukhjeet Singh, Ramgarhia Girls College, Ludhiana (30).

Group song — GCG Sector 11, Chandigarh (1); Ramgarhia Girls College, Ludhiana (2); DAV College, Abohar (3); individual — Pavitra, Ramgarhia Girls College, Ludhiana (1); Ritu Sharma, GCG Sector 11, Chandigarh (2).

Cartooning — Vandana, Khasla College for Women, Ludhiana (1); Bikram Singh, Government College, Hoshiarpur (2); Amit Joshi, Government College, Hoshiarpur (3); landscape — Rashmi, Khalsa College for Women, Ludhiana (1); Bharti, Khalsa College for Women, Ludhiana (2); Vikram, Government College, Hoshiarpur (3).

Still life — Monika, Khalsa College for Women, Ludhiana (1); Jatinder Pal Singh, Government College, Hoshiarpur (2); Aarti, Khalsa College for Women, Ludhiana (3); clay modelling — Balish Ahuja, Government College, Hoshiarpur (1); Monika, Khalsa College for Women, Ludhiana (2); Pallavi, Khalsa College for Women, Ludhiana (3).

Poster making — Kawaljeet, Khalsa College for Women, Hoshiarpur (1); Mukesh, Government College, Hoshiarpur (2); Simmi, Government College, Hoshiarpur (3); collage making — Shivani Kaushal, Government College, Hoshiarpur (1); Kamal Kiran Singh, Government Art and Science College, Talwara (2); Mamta Rani, Government College, Hoshiarpur (3).

Rangoli — Puja, GGN Khalsa College, Ludhiana (1); Priti, Government College Hoshiarpur (2); Ramandeep, GGN Khalsa College, Ludhiana (3); drawing from life — Jagdeep Singh, GGN Khalsa College, Ludhiana (1); Rupinder, Khalsa College for Women, Ludhiana (2); Rajvinder, Khalsa College for Women, Ludhiana (3).

Quiz — DAV College, Abohar (1); Khalsa College for Women, Ludhiana (2); AS College, Khanna (3); poetry recitation — Aarti Bhatia, Government College, Hoshiarpur (1); Archana, GCG Sector 11, Chandigarh (2); Gurpreet Singh, Ramgarhia Girls College, Ludhiana (3).

Debate — Aarti Bhatia, Government College, Hoshiarpur (1); Gurpreet Singh, Ramgarhia Girls College, Ludhiana (2); Jaswinder Singh, DAV College, Hoshiarpur (3).

A distinct style, and gracefully feminine
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Dec 15 — An interesting exhibition exhaustively flowing with loads of colour and splashes of rapid grazes on the canvas, titled Legends and Landscapes opened this afternoon at the Government Museum and Art Gallery, Sector 10. The exhibition has been put up by two artists from Pune, Shobha Patki and Mukund Kelkar.

The 50 works of the entire exhibition, in fact, seem to throw a lot of brilliance and vividness to the otherwise cold and dreary dull weather. And the festivity and animation of the season is brought to the fore by the plethora of Ganesha-images and other such figurines of gods and goddesses.

The works of Patki stand out not only for their excited and restless strokes, but her raised and elevated myriad forms, a distinct style cascading in a very controlled manner in all her paintings, do present some amazing patterns and semblance.

Even her eye-for-detail within these freely emanating forms, within which Patki gently puts in various traditional figures, appear to develop a language of their own — something very gracefully feminine, but without making a loud or a passionate statement for the same.

Her works on wood, with painted canvas on them, surely present a very stylistic composition — both detailed and spontaneous.

Meanwhile, Kelkar’s works are a show-case of various landscapes that are amassed with green foliage, golden autumn leaves, blue skies and hugely tinted blue seas. Incidentally, both these artists are also involved in mural making, and their works did hint influences of each other in their works.

The exhibition will remain open till December 21.

The exhibition today was inaugurated by Mr N K Jain, Home Secretary, UT. Mr S P Arora, Director, Public Relations, Chandigarh, and Mr G S Chani, Chairman, Chandigarh Sangeet Natak Akademi, were also present on this occasion.

Artist who 'draws' with scissors
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Dec 15 — He works with scissors and paper to make pictures. Paper-cutter Ustad Prabal Pramanik, who does not even feel the need to draw on paper but 'draws' pictures of anything — from your profile to a Ganpati to a deer to even a woman holding a parrot — with his scissors on paper, yesterday opened his exhibition of works at Punjab Kala Bhavan Gallery, Sector 16.

The 32 exhibits of Pramanik include not only paper cuttings, but also drawings, water colours, paper sculptures and works in mixed media. These works display his versatility and dexterity.

One titled, The Lily Pool and the Storks, has the exhibits hanging from the top and placed atop a mirror for reflection. The sculpture though interesting, appears to get lost without the availability of proper lighting or placement.

The eye for detail in all of Pramanik's works is evident, but since his exhibits are so acutely stuck to the traditional Indian forms of 'lotus and deer' or Indian deities, there does seem to be some lack of excitement or even emotion.

For the fans of paper-cutter Pramanik, another treat could be his works in mixed media and water colour, in which he has concentrated mainly on clouds. But his paper-cuttings certainly draw more attention than these works.

At the exhibition, the artist has also put on display his greeting cards and would also be available to do portraits for a price.

This exhibition will be on till December 20.

Talk on contemporary Punjabi poetry
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Dec 15 — The Punjab Arts Council, in collaboration with the Punjabi Sahitya Akademi, today organised a Ru-ba-Ru session with veteran Punjabi artist Ajaib Kamal.

With over three dozen published works, Kamal is now settled in Dandia village near Phagwara, Punjab, for the past almost one year. A former teacher, who was teaching both Asian and African children, the poet is now free-lancing.

Ajaib Kamal’s first book of verse was titled Taash dey pattey, after which he went on to pen many more. He interacted with a select audience today evening on the issues of the plight of the contemporary Punjabi poetry and also reminisced many of the poets he worked with. later, he recited some of his poetry to the audiences.

‘UT can’t host school games’
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Dec 15 — The National School Games are an opportunity for students to show their sport talent. If a player is deprived of this opportunity, his career can run into trouble. A few years ago, these games were considered the mini Olympics of the country. Earlier, these games used to be organised in one age group only.

Now the games are held in different age groups such as under-14, under-17 and under-19. More than 20 disciplines are included in the list of the Schools Games Federation of India (SGFI), which is the apex body for organising these games. In order to reduce the burden on one host, the games were allotted to various hosts depending on the facilities at various centres. This has been a normal practice , but this year, five disciplines — hockey, basketball, tennis, table tennis and fencing — were allotted to Chandigarh in May. The UT Education Department was supposed to organise these games from December 25 to 30.

However, On November 11, about 45 days before the beginning of the games, the UT Education Department wrote a letter to the SGFI, citing inability to conduct these games. The SGFI replied that showing inability at this stage would jeopardise the games. The department, once again, in the last week of November, sent a letter expressing inability to hold the games.

Mr Brahmjit Kalia, District Education Officer, said due to lack of funds, the UT would not be able to host the games.

Mr N.K. Jain, Education Secretary of the UT Administration, expressed ignorance on the holding of the games and said the DPI (schools) should be contacted for details. Mr D.S. Saroya, DPI (schools), said he was away when the DEO sent the letter to the SGFI.

Mr Ravinder Talwar, Vice-President of the SGFI, said the lack of funds should not be any problem as every partcipating state usually bore its expenses. Besides, for every discipline, the government also released grant.

Mr D.V. Bhatia, President of the Chandigarh Gynmastics Association said the reason was a lack of will on part of the department. He said hosting the games should be a top priority for the department.

A former table tennis player said raising of funds for such a massive event as the games can never be any problem. He said a lot of persons would want to sponsor a meet where more than 2,000 sporstpersons from all over India participated. Another sport enthusiast whose children were to compete in one of the proposed events, said the new Governor of Punjab and the UT Administrator, Mr J.F.R. Jacob, was taking keen interest in sport and should mediate in the matter. A former badminton player said hosting of if Chandigarh Carnival could be sponsored by the UT Administration, why not the games.

'Squash becoming popular'
By Arvind Katyal

Chandigarh, Dec 15 — Amitoj Inder Singh, one of the first eight professional squash players of the country, has now become a coach. Squash is becoming a popular sport in India. The Women's International Squash Players Association (WISPA) Indian Open Tournament concluded at Chennai on December 5. The game was earlier played mostly by defence personnel.

For a long time, Pakistan dominated the game with players like Jahangir and Jansher on its side. Now, the top players belong to Canada and the game is also becoming popular in Egypt, Malaysia, Scotland and other European countries. In 2004, squash was likely to become an Olympic sport, said Amitoj.

Panchkula-based Amitoj took to squash in 1984 when he was a student of Yadavindra Public School, SAS Nagar. Due to his father's job, Amitoj shifted to Kanpur where Brig Raj Manchanda taught him finer points of the game. After his father's retirement, Amitoj settled at Panchkula where he received coaching from Col K.J. Vohra.

In July 1997, Amitoj thought of training youngsters because there was a lack of squash coaches in the city. He trained an under-12 squash team of YPS which won the All-India IPSC Schools Meet. Amitoj decided to pursue it as a full time career and aims to produce international-level squash players from this part of the country.

He said various public schools of the city, such as St Stephen's School, Sector 45, St John's High School, Sector 26, and YPS, SAS Nagar, have shown keen interest in providing squash facilities to students. He said at St John's High School, a squash court would come up soon.

Amitoj even organised a ranking circuit tournament in August, where squash players of various public schools of the region (Lawrence School, Sanawar; Army Public School, Dagshai; Bishop Cotton School, Shimla; St Stephen's and St John's, Chandigarh) took part. It was organised with the help of local sponsors. A local tyre dealer has promised to sponsor next year's circuit meet in March.

Amitoj recently attended the Asian Level-II Coaching-cum-Referees' Clinic at Chennai which coincided with the WISPA Indian Open Tournament.

The clinic was attended by coaches from countries like Malaysia, Sri Lanka, South Korea and nine from India. Amitoj was the only one from North India to attend the course which was organised by the Squash Racquets Federation of India (SRFI). Mr Munir Shah, Singapore-based Director of the Asian Squash Federation was at the helm. Amitoj said the clinic was good for coaches as it taught about new rules, injuries and analysing practical situations on the court.

Amitoj said squash facilities existed at Gymkhana Club, Sector 6, Panchkula; Chandigarh Club; Sector 7 Sports Complex, Chandigarh; and Air Force Club, but the game was played only for the sake of fun not in the spirit of competition. Even the Sports Authority of India had till date not introduced any course for squash coaches at the NIS, he said.

He said at present, two national squash tournaments were being hosted, one for players under the ages of 11, 13 and 15, while another for players under the ages of 17 and above. The second tournament is scheduled to begin on January 7 at Delhi. Amitoj said squash was not as expensive as other sport.

He said one ball cost Rs 60 to Rs 70 and was quite durable, besides one racquet costing about Rs 1,000 which was a one-time investment.

Manan, Sunny surge ahead
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Dec 15 — Manan Nagpal and Sunny Bhalla surged ahead in the open snooker event on the opening day of the Haryana State Billiards and Snooker Championship, which began at the YMCA, Sector 11, here today.

Manan defeated Shashi 61-36, 76-11, 71-39, while Sunny beat Harjot Singh 59-24, 70-10, 85-61. In the third snooker match, Vikas Bhagat beat Bhupinder 54-37, 58-26, 56-41.

In junior snooker section, Raghav Baweja defeated Arvind 54-30, 42-29, 63-35. In junior billiards section, Apurv Rawat beat Ravind 107-93. Billiards events are being held at Panchkula.

Sub-jr trials

The Chandigarh Football Association will hold selection trials for a coaching camp for the Chandigarh sub-junior team for taking part in the 22nd sub-junior National Football Championship, to be held at Midnapore in West Bengal from December 28. The trials will be held tomorrow at Football Stadium, Sector 17, according to Mr C.P. Malik, Treasurer of the association.

Players born on or after January 1, 1984, are eligible. The participants must bring their original birth certificates with them.

Handball meet

The Chandigarh Handball Association will hold the 20th UT Handball Championship for men and women from December 22 to 24 at DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 8, according to Mr Ravinder Talwar, Secretary of the association. Entries close with Mr Ravinder Singh on December 21.

Selection trials

Trials to select the UT schools under-14 boys' and girls' badminton teams will be held at Indoor Stadium, Sector 42, on December 18, according to Mr Brahmjit Kalia, District Education Officer. Trials to select the UT schools under-19 boys' and girls' basketball teams will be organised at Sports Complex, Sector 7.

Football tourney

The fifth V.K. Rana Memorial Football Tournament will begin tomorrow at HMT, Pinjore, near here, according to Mr Ashok Rana, President of the HMT Karmik Sangh. Teams of the region will take part in this three-day tournament.

Basketball trials

The Chandigarh Basketball Association will hold trials to select the UT senior men's and women's teams for taking part in the National Senior Basketball Championship, to be held in Delhi in January next year, according to Mr K.S. Bharti, Secretary of the association. These will be held at DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 8, on December 17.