IT Chandigarh

CHANDIGARH: Supreme court judge Justice Ashok Bhan on Saturday stressed upon the need for a change in the mindset of the people for empowerment of women.

Speaking after inaugurating a seminar on women’s empowerment organised by Haryana State Legal Services Authority and Chandigarh Legal Services Authority, here on Saturday, Justice Bhan expressed serious concern on the rising incidence of female foeticide and wondered how the human race would go on if people killed females in the womb.

Reminding that the preamble of the Constitution gave equal rights to women, Bhan, who is also the executive chairman of the National Legal Services Authority, cited several examples of how the girl child was still being discriminated against in contemporary indian families.

He regretted that there were those who did not give even good food to their daughters and there were others who loved their daughters, but discriminated against daughters-in-law.

Laying emphasis on the need to give social, political and economic equality to women, Bhan said a change in the mindset was imperative to make them equal partners with men.

Source: The Times of India News Service

CHANDIGARH: For long, Punjabi youth have been criticized for their impetuosity, aggressiveness and devil-may-care attitude. Ironically, these very words have turned a blessing in disguise for these young men, reeling under the impact of unemployment, narcotics and government apathy.

In what is apparently a God-send opportunity, these youths may soon get exciting offers from various shipping companies facing an acute manpower crunch. Industry estimates put the shortage to the tune of 500-700 officers with global scarcity poised to touch 12% by 2010.

The lords of the sea, be it Shipping Corporation of India, Dohle-Danautic and Univan Ship Management Company, all are eying the region north of Delhi where they feel their search for adventurous, sturdy and rough talent would yield fruit. Earlier, such companies used to carry out recruitment through their offices in metros like Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai, but now, the tide has turned.

Importantly, tier-2 cities like Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Chandigarh, not even remotely associated with shipping, are on these companies’ radar now.

“Since metros have reached a saturation point, there is no choice for the shipping firms, private or otherwise, but to widen their search for quality manpower to the interiors of India. Punjab is the natural choice,” S Hajara, chairman, Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), told TOI.
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Guruta Gaddi Divas

Chandigarh: The Punjab government has decided to deploy Punjab police in Maharastra, besides assisting them with equipment, vehicles and other resources for the 300th Guruta Gaddi Divas of Guru Granth Sahib at Nanded.

The decision was taken today in New Delhi at a meeting of a committee that included Punjab Chief Minister and union home minister Shivraj Patil, who is chairman of this committee on Guruta Gaddi Divas celebrations.

About 12 lakh devotees are expected to attend the week-long celebrations at Takht Sri Sach Khand Hazoor Sahib, commencing from October 28 to November 4. The committee also finalised the programme, which includes “maha ishnan” on October 28, Diwali on October 29, nagar kirtan October 30, “parlok gaman” of Guru Goind Singh on November 3 and another nagar kirtan on November 4.

The Chief Minister urged Patil to immediately release funds to the tune of Rs 200 crore for the development of the historic towns of Anandpur Sahib and Talwandi Sabo, besides timely allocation of funds for early completion of the Guru Gobind Singh Marg from Anandpur Sahib to Nanded Sahib (Maharashtra).
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Chandigarh: Despite a clear sky and sunshine there was little respite from the biting cold as the night temperature in the north-west India continued to remain below normal.

However, the people in the region will get a respite from the gloom of overcast sky as the weatherman has predicted sunny days ahead.

Though the hill state of Himachal Pradesh also witnessed sunshine in most places, the weatherman has forecast a dip in night temperatures in a range of four to two degrees Celsius.

In Punjab, the holy city of Amritsar recorded eight degrees below normal temperatures while the mercury dipped below normal by two degrees at Hisar, Bathinda and Shimla, three degrees at Chandigarh and Narnaul, six degrees at Karnal, four degrees at Ludhiana.

In Punjab, Adampur airbase continued to be the coldest place with the minimum temperature recorded at 0.2 degrees Celsius as against yesterday’s 1.0 degrees Celsius.

In the holy city of Amritsar, the minimum temperature dropped to 1.0 degree Celsius, while at Halwara airbase near Ludhiana, the night temperature further plunged to 0.6 degree Celsius as against yesterday’s 2.4 degrees Celsius.
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Chandigarh, February 10 The UT Education Department is coming up with hi-tech gymnasiums and beauty salons in two of its government schools that would also act as training institutes of vocational courses. It is learnt that professionals from leading beauty salons in the city would be invited to impart training at these institutes.

Education Department officials have estimated to set up the institutes at the cost of around 50 lakh. The government schools which have been identified for the development of institutes include Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 46 and Government Senior Secondary School, Sector 37.

Both the schools would have one beauty salon and one gymnasium each. The gymnasiums would be open for both government as well as private school students.

The Director Public Instructions (Schools), S K Setia said, “We already had these plans in pipeline and now we are executing the same. Salons are being set up to impart vocational training courses while gymnasiums will improve physical activity of the school students.”
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Chandigarh: The big fat Punjabi wedding might just run into the taxman. The Income Tax Department is trying to keep a tab on extravagant weddings to check whether any unaccounted for money has been used.

This is after the Department found that the owner of Panchkula-based Barnala Builders had spent an unaccounted for Rs 15 lakh on his son’s wedding in December last.

Owner of Barnala Builders, Madan Lal Aggarwal, was later summoned by I-T officials to explain.

A senior I-T official said, “People who hold such lavish weddings create social liability for others. Government is against such lavish marriages. After we got a tip-off, we discovered discrepancies of over Rs 15 lakh. The income was unaccounted for and had been added to taxable income”.

More than Rs 35 lakh was spent on the marriage. PROs had been employed to project the wedding of groom Deepak Aggarwal and bride Aashi from Bhatinda as an out of the world experience. The wedding was planned by one of most wedding planners in India and the baraat was followed by a convoy of elephants, camels and horses.
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