Rose Festival: New features added to attract youngsters

To revive the old magic of the annual event of Chandigarh — Rose Festival, the UT Tourism Department would add two regular features to the annual extravaganza.

The 40th edition of the Rose Festival will witness Miss and Mr Rose Chandigarh 2012 contest and floral hat making competition this year.

Every year, the Rose Festival also known as the Festival of Gardens comes with a new edition but with same old exhibits, same traffic dilemmas for the city denizens and nothing new to offer to the visitors. Also, the Festival of Gardens organised in last few years, did not turn out to be any exception for city residents.

Considering the same, the UT Tourism Department has decided to add two new features to the annual fest to attract large number of youngsters and foreign tourists.

Rose Festival will have — Miss and Mr Rose Chandigarh 2012, where people above 18 years of age can participate. Girls above 5.2 feet height and boys above 5.7 feet, living in the Tricity are eligible to participate in the competition.

The competition aims at bringing in scores of youngsters to the Rose Festival. Besides, to add a creative element to the Rose Festival, the UT Tourism Department will organise a floral hat making competition, where all visitors would be eligible to participate.

Every year, the festival includes the rose prince and princess competition for children, on the spot painting competition, flower arrangements, cutting of flowers for garden lovers, kite flying, besides joy ride, camel ride, monkey dance, puppet show and a folk dance competition followed by cultural evenings by renowned singers and film personalities.

An amusement park is also an added attraction for children as well for youngsters at the Leisure Valley during Rose Festival. This year, the three day Rose Festival would be organised from February 24-26.

Much to the delight of the visitors, renowned artistes from Bollywood have been invited to perform at the festival. Since, the Festival of Gardens is an event dipped in entertainment and topped up with glamour quotient; three musical nites will be organised on all three days with live performances of renowned artists.

Also, to add taste to the visitors’ palate, there will be a large variety of eateries, comprising different cuisines from neighbouring States.

“This year, two new contests will be organised at the Rose Festival especially to attract large number of youth to the annual event,” said Arvind Malhotra, Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Corporation Limited (CITCO), general manager (Tourism) while talking to The Pioneer.

He said, “The festival would see Miss and Mr Rose Chandigarh 2012 contest and floral hat making competition this year.”

At present, the Rose Garden has 825 varieties of roses. It has 1,365 flower beds and nearly 32,000 plants. Spreading over an area of 30 acres, the Asia’s largest Rose Garden named after India’s former President Zakir Hussain is set to welcome all with nearly 100 new varieties of roses during Rose Festival.

Wetland day celebrated at Sukhna

Sukhna Lake

Chandigarh, February 2
In a bid to apprise local residents of importance as well as the rich biodiversity of the wetland, the UT department of forests and environment celebrated World Wetland Day at Sukhna Lake today.

Chief guest DK Tiwari, Secretary Forest, Environment and Science and Technology, stressed on the need to protect and conserve the valuable ecosystem. He also administered a pledge to students for the conservation of nature and natural resources like wetlands by adopting a sustainable way of life.

Fourth floor of GK President razed

Chandigarh, February 2
In a major demolition drive, the fourth storey of a hotel, GK President at Attawa in Sector 42 here, was demolished by the enforcement department of the municipal corporation (MC) today.

The enforcement team also demolished other parts of the building which had violations. The drive was carried out for five hours by engineers of the road, building and enforcement wings.

A senior official said the owner of the hotel had constructed the fourth storey in violation of building bylaws and in contravention of the building plan sanctioned.

The official further said a toilet and a store had also been constructed on the fourth floor, adding that a notice had been served to the owner of the hotel by the MC in August, 2011.

He stated that the owner of the hotel had, during a hearing, been given time till December 8, 2011, to remove the violations on his own, but no action had been taken.

He asserted that the MC Commissioner exercised powers of Chief Administrator and she had ordered the demolition.

The MC staff was accompanied by a police team to avoid any untoward incident.

‘Goonj’ on the road ahead of festival

Chandigarh, February 2

The University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET), Panjab University, began pre-fest activities of ‘Goonj’, scheduled for February 4 and 5.
Over 200 UIET students went to PEC, CCET, DAV-10 and GCG to declare the celebration open. The road show was a four-hour affair.

The fest would have different activities, ranging from fashion nights to robotics competitions, debates to international rock band performances and fun events to art workshops. 

The fest would promote causes of NACO and PETA. The first alumni meet of the UIET is scheduled to be held on February 5.

Second-hand book market stays put: HC

Chandigarh, February 2

The second-hand book market near the Sector-15 petrol station is here to stay. The Punjab and Haryana High Court has slammed shut the chapter of its shifting to a new location.

Dismissing the petition against the current location of the kiosks, offering rare and contemporary books, the high court has asserted that the Administration has not “committed any error in granting the sites for the resettlement of booksellers”.

The market was initially located near the Panjab University gate, on the road separating Sectors 14 and 15, but was relocated to its new site, near the subway at Sector 15.

Aggrieved by the action, Ashutosh Vermani and other petitioners had moved the high court against the Chandigarh Administration and other respondents.

In their petition placed before the Bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Mahesh Grover, the petitioners putting up in Sector 15-B claimed the makeshift structures opposite their houses were “eyesores”. The petitioners contended these structures were also in complete violation of the area’s zoning plan.

Going into the background of the issue, the Bench asserted the booksellers dealing with pre-used books were initially “operating from the areas meant for pedestrians opposite the university gate” in the Sector 15 main market. The activity “resulted in a traffic hazard, when people stopped to buy books from them”.

The Bench added: “With the laudable objective of solving this problem, the site in question was chosen by the Administration to provide temporary structures so as to rehabilitate these booksellers and also to avoid a traffic hazard created by their activities in the previous site….

“It is evident that the site in the zoning plan originally was shown as a public space and meant for use of landscape features, educational, public and community buildings and public amenities.

“With a conscious decision, the change of land use was permitted by the Chief Administrator, Chandigarh, for resettlement of book sellers' platforms, in respect of the sites in Sector 15-A….

“On due consideration of the matter, we are of the opinion that the Administration by way of abundant caution had granted the change of land use for resettlement of the book sellers' platforms….

“The original purpose enshrined in the zoning plan gave an ample elbowroom to them to carve out such sites, keeping in view the fact that the site was originally meant for educational purposes.

“In our opinion, the sale of books by creating infrastructure for them would certainly be a step in this direction more so, when the area is surrounded by colleges and the university”.

Savvy NRIs lap up India Inc’s dollar bonds from existing FIIs

MUMBAI: Dollar-denominated bonds of Indian companies are gaining popularity among wealthy non-resident Indians (NRIs) and savvy local investors. These individuals are mopping up such bonds, which are being dumped by foreign investors amid worries that Indian companies could default on their debt repayments in the wake of the slowdown in the domestic economy and squeeze in corporate profits.

Wealth managers said confidence in debt of Indian companies is so low that foreign investors are dumping their bonds at 40% to 60% discount to their original prices. Bank bonds, which bear coupon rates in the range of 4-5%, are trading at 6-6.5% levels in overseas markets. Dollar bonds issued by corporates are currently yielding 7-7.5%.

Indian companies are considered risky overseas because of their lower credit rating, which is driven by the nation's sovereign rating of 'BBB minus'.

"There are worries of debt repayment defaults; also there is a feeling that Indian companies will not do well over the next few quarters. This has resulted in foreign banks and institutions reducing exposure to Indian debt," said Nitin Jain, head - capital markets, Edelweiss Capital Markets.

NRIs and the informed domestic investors are seeing opportunities in such fire sales. They are looking out for papers, especially, foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) that are up for redemption this year. Yields on many such bonds are trading at almost 9% overseas, with those issued by blue-chip companies like Tata Steel, Reliance Industries and Bharti Airtel at 8.5-9%. Such investments make sense for NRIs because dollar deposits fetch them just 1% to 1.25%.

Much more than returns, dollar bonds eliminate currency risk for NRIs, said Raghvendra Nath, managing director of Ladderup Wealth Management.

"In these times of currency volatility, there's huge risk involved in bringing money to India and investing them in local assets. There's greater comfort for NRIs to invest in dollar bonds and earn higher yields on them," Nath said. These bonds could fetch these NRIs between 5% and 7%, said wealth managers.

For wealthy local investors, such investments are attempts to diversify their portfolio. Most of them are using the Reserve Bank's liberalised remittances scheme route - which allows individuals to invest up to $2,00,000 in foreign assets every year - to invest in these bonds.

"HNIs (high net worth investors) are investing in dollar-denominated bonds to diversify their portfolio. This strategy allows investors to have exposure to a different currency other than the rupee," said Prateek Pant, head of wealth solutions at RBS. "Several FCCBs are currently trading at a significant discount to their issue price. NRIs are cherry picking the well-known names as value buys," Pant said.

Edelweiss's Jain said rich investors invest in dollar bonds to pocket the additional 'carry' value on rupee. "They are hedging the rupee ( futures) before investing in these bonds. They earn an additional 5-6% carry value on rupee along with 6-7% yields on bonds," Jain said.

US-based Sikhs file lawsuits against Jay Leno, NBC

JALANDHAR: Two separate complaints against Leno have been lodged in the US - one with the Federal Communications Commission and the other with the superior court of California.

The US-based Sikh rights group " Sikhs for Justice" (SFJ) has lodged a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the US government - which regulates the broadcast of television programs, analyzes the complaints and conducts investigations - against the "objectionable depiction of Golden Temple" byNBC Talk Show Host Jay Leno on January 19, 2012.

Meanwhile California based Dr Randeep Dhillon has filed a suit for damages for Libel in the superior court of California against Jay Leno and NBC.

The SFJ complaint filed with Joel Gurin, bureau chief, consumer & governmental affairs bureau at FCC states that "Jay Leno's depiction of the Golden Temple as the home of the rich is racist, derogatory, defamatory, contrary to the reality, inimical to the principles of Sikhism, and thus hurtful to the sentiments of the Sikh community." The complaint demands imposition of sanctions against Leno "for spreading racism" and against NBC "for airing contents ridiculing a place of worship."

Attorney Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, legal advisor to SFJ, said "while we value and honour freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment but the First Amendment is not a tool to ridicule a religion or to spread untrue, biased and racist information." This is not the first time that Jay Leno has shown disrespect and bias towards Sikhs and their faith. Earlier, in 2007 Jay Leno had called Sikhs as 'diaper heads' referring to the turban worn by Sikhs in compliance with their religious edict.

"Jay Leno's wrongful depiction of the Golden Temple is more hurtful to the sentiments of the Sikh community because any disrespectful or derogatory remark about the temple brings back the tormenting memories of June 1984 Operation Blue Star in the minds of the Sikhs in which thousands of Sikh pilgrims were killed," attorney Pannun added. SFJ also announced to hold a protest rally on February 2 in front of the NBC Headquarters in New York City demanding that the NBC sack Jay Leno for his remarks about the Golden Temple.

Dr Randeep Dhillon's libel suit in the superior court of California against Jay Leno and NBC said that the "publication" (comments) was made intentionally and it hurt the sentiments of the all the Sikh people in addition to the plaintiff.

It said, "The publication and broadcast was libelous on its face and clearly exposes plaintiff, other Sikhs and their religion to hatred, contempt, ridicule and obloquy because it falsely portrays the holiest place in the Sikh religion as a vacation resort owned by a non-Sikh. Holding that the publication and broadcast warranted an award of punitive and exemplary damages the petition has prayed for general damages, special damages, punitive damages and any further relief as deemed just and fair by the court."