CHANDIGARH, April 16: Elegance laced with beauty and style. This is how 23 participants of the Miss IPW Contest'99 can be best described. The contest was held as part of the 15th Annual Function of The International Polytechnic for Women at Tagore Theatre this evening, also featuring the ``Designer of the Year'' contest. L. H. Naqvi, Deputy Editor of The Tribune, was the chief guest for the evening.Avtar Singh, chairman, apprised the audience of the institute and it's role in imparting vocational and technical education to it's students.``This institute aims at making it's pass-outs financially independent, which leads to the economic prosperity of the family and therefore, the nation as a whole,'' he said.The show took off with a Vandana dance performance. Other highlights amongst the cultural events were a ballet, a parody performance and songs and dances performed by the students. The judges for the Miss IPW contest included Gulshan Virk, proprietor, Innoxa Beauty Parlour, Lalita Prakash, principal, Aashaiana Public School, Kehkashan Naqvi and Shobha Kausar.The charming young girls had an air of grace and charm as they sashayed down the stage in the elimination round, which reduced the number of contestants to 10. In the final round, there were five contestants. Jasmine was crowned Miss IPW '99, while Gunita Madan and Sonal were adjudged first and second runners-up respectively.The ``Designer of the Year'' contest ended in a tie with the judges selecting outfits by Sonia from the textiles department and Harkirat from the fashion designing department. Sonia had on display a bamboo dress, while the outfit designed by Harkirat had exquisite beading work.Class VIII awardsGovernment Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 19-C, honoured its students who got merit positions in the middle standard board examination.The students who got awards today are: Ramnik Kaur, Neha Anand, Priyanka, Shweta, Shiv Kumar, Vivek Malhotra and Sai Gaurav. The prizes were distributed by the president of Parents Teachers Union, Bal Ram Aggarwal.
