CITCO's street food fest from Oct 26

Chandigarh, October 23

CITCO's Chandigarh Street Art and Street Food Festival will be held from October 26 to 27 at the Sukhna Lake.

Organised in association with the UT Tourism Department, the festival has been conceptualised on the pattern of art festivals being held in the US and European countries. It will be spread over the vast area adjoining the lake and also on the road leading from the Rock Garden to the lake.

The major attraction will be the special street being created on the road from the Rock Garden to the Sukhna Lake showcasing 40 forms of art and making it the largest graffiti in the country.

Besides, there are live sculpture art, sand art, 3D rangoli, face painting and tattoo-making, folk dances and music, folk singing, instrumental music performance (saxophone, accordion, cello, flute, violin and piano) at the venue.

Besides there will be folk dances performances in evening on both days.

The Street Food Festival 'Chattori Gali' will be an attraction with food all across the North India.

IIT Ropar’s new campus gets approval

The Main Building of the Transit Campus of IIT Ropar situated in Rupnagar

Ropar, October 13

The students and staff members at Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar can hope for better facilities on campus as the IIT Board of Governors has approved the master plan of the new building that is to be set up on nearly 475 acres. The first phase of construction is likely to begin within the next 6 months

The management has already finalised the consultant and the construction company for building the four-storey building that will have a provision for vertical expansion.

IIT, Ropar, the first in the region, was set up by the Ministry of Human Resource and Development in 2008. The classes for academic session 2008-2009 were held at IIT, Delhi before it started functioning at its temporary campus in August 2009, earlier occupied by Women's Polytechnic, Ropar.

While the master plan is supposed to accommodate 10,000 students, the academic block will be set up for 2,500 students in the first phase. A total of 2,15,739 square metre area of the campus comprising academic and administration blocks with accommodation for staff and faculty along with sports and hostel facilities will be developed.

While three 450-bed hostels for boys will be constructed in the first phase, a 250-bed hostel for girls will also be built. Similarly, 350 flats measuring between 600 and 1,800 square yards will be built for faculty and other staff members.

The institute offers degrees in Computer Science and Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering.

Phailin hits 90 lakh people; 23 dead, lakhs of hom...

The NRI Post - Largest NRI News Portal: Phailin hits 90 lakh people; 23 dead, lakhs of hom...: 9 lakh evacuated from path of Cyclone Phailin Tropical Cyclone Phailin in the Bay of Bengal. Gopalpur - Cyclone 'Phailin' on...

Punjab News Weekly: PGI's Sangrur centre to focus on liver, kidney diseases

SANGRUR -  The satellite centre of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), whose foundation stone would be ...

Applicants face a harrowing time at Passport Seva Kendra (PSK)

Chandigarh, August 24

Applicants faced a harrowing time at the passport mela held at Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) today. With no waiting room on the premises, applicants had to stand in scorching heat while waiting for their turn. “It is like a punishment to reach the venue early and then wait for an hour on the roadside due to the absence of any waiting room for the passport seekers,” said an applicant who came from Punjab.

Other applicants too who reached the venue ahead of the scheduled time had a similar tale to tell

Adding to their woes, applicants were made to wait for another half-an-hour to reach the counter after the issuance of the token.

Some applicants had another problem waiting for them at the counter.

“The officials who were deployed for the verification of documents rejected my files without mentioning which documents were missing. When I asked them about it, the official said they add those details to their database and were not required to mention in on the file,” said a woman who had come to get a passport made for her 10-year-old daughter.

“We came to the passport mela thinking that the authorities might have set up additional counters to clear the rush, but surprisingly no additional staff was deployed here,” said an applicant from Chandigarh.

Regional Passport Officer Rakesh Agrawal said it was difficult for the department to maintain a waiting room. He said the department had banned the entry of any other person along with the candidate to avoid agents.

Aggarwal said space for 17 counters had been earmarked on the premises keeping in view the future demands.

Records of the department revealed that today there were only seven counters entertaining the applicants, while earlier there used to be 10.

The Regional Passport Office had organised the passport mela to receive the forms as there are three holidays during the weekdays in August.

Records of the department revealed that of the 864 applicants who had taken an appointment today, 780 turned up. Of these, 629 were able to get their passports made, while 135 failed to produce the required documents. They were asked to submit the documents in the next three days.

Dial-a-cycle-rickshaws launched in Chandigarh

Chandigarh, 25 June - City residents need not walk across the streets to spot a cycle-rickshaw. They just have to dial the operators’ number and the rickshaw will be at their doorsteps within minutes.

In perhaps first of its kind initiative in the city, a group of volunteers have come up with a facility that enables the residents to call up rickshaw operators on their cellphones.

The phone numbers of rickshaw operators (sector wise), for ‘Dial-a-rikshaw’ service are available on the website http://www.chandigarh.ecocabs.org.

And if you are satisfied with the service, you can recommend the rickshaw operator’s name to other residents by uploading his name and phone number online. A separate link on the website enables residents to recommend the name of rickshaw operators.

The website has a database of 110 rickshaw operators who are spread across 12 sectors. The service is available in Sectors 9, 11, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 23, 40, 41, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47 and 56.

Sample this: If a resident of Sector 44 hires a rickshaw, he can take the details of the operator and upload the same on the sub-section of Sector 44 on the website.

A team of 12 volunteers from different walks of life joined hands to form a non-profit association and developed the concept of ‘Dial-a-rickshaw ecocabs’. The service was launched today in collaboration with the UT Administration, Municipal Corporation and the New Kranti Cycle Rickshaw Union.

“In case of any complaint against the rickshaw operator, the residents can access the contact number of the sector mentor from the website,” said one of the volunteers, Navdeep Asija, the founder of ‘Dial-a-rickshaw ecocabs’.

Chandigarh Municipal Corporation is all set to impose house tax

Patil gives the go-ahead to MC proposal; Tax to be collected from July

Chandigarh, June 17 - Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (MC) will start collecting house tax at the rate of Re 1 per sq yard per year from July.

With the imposition of house tax, the MC will get around Rs 2.50 crore annually. The owner of a five-marla house in the city will have to shell out only Rs 125 per year, followed by Rs 187.5, Rs 250 and Rs 375 per year for owners of 7.5, 10 and 15-marla houses.

The owner of a one-kanal house (500 sq yards) will have to shell out Rs 500 per year, followed by Rs 1,000 per year for owners of two, three, four, five and six-kanal houses. No house tax will be levied on houses less than 125 sq yards. EWS and LIG houses have been exempted. In the case of apartments, a category-wise lumpsum amount will be charged proportionately.

Rates to be revised after three months

According to UT officials, initially they will impose house tax at the rates proposed by the MC. However, after three months, they will review the rates and there are chances that the Administration will increase the rates because Re 1 per sq yard will not make much of a difference to the financial health of the MC and the Administration.

Number of houses to be affected

There are 20,265 houses (five marla and above as well as kanal houses), 7,979 houses in co-operative societies, 5,597 MIG houses, 10,675 HIG houses, 15,053 houses under the Administration and 22,040 under the Central Government, which will have to pay house tax.

BJP opposed the decision

Former Union Minister and senior BJP leader Harmohan Dhawan opposed the decision of the UT Administration, saying that the UT was a fund-surplus state.