Hope floats for amphibious bus service

Ferozepur: The much-delayed amphibious bus service will finally start operations in the Harike wetland next month. The bus, which can ply on land as well as water, has been imported from Swedish automotive company Scania. It has already reached the port of Goa, where it is being re-assembled. State Tourism Director NPS Randhawa said issues pertaining to its operation, maintenance, safety and route had been sorted. “The vehicle will have a week-long trial run before it starts showing the tourists the rich bio-diversity of this sanctuary,” said Randhawa, adding that more buses would be brought once the pilot project became successful.

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Medical science’s loss, theatre’s gain

Abohar: His parents sent Guninder Singh (20) to Canada to pursue studies in the medical stream, but he had other plans. He has got admission to Studio 58 in Vancouver’s Langara College for a three-year diploma in theatre. Guninder is the first Indian in the international students’ category to make it to Studio 58. He did matriculation from Yadavindra Public School, Mohali, and Class XII from the local DAV College. He played the lead role in a play, ‘A Christmas in Kerala’, which was staged at Tagore Theatre, Chandigarh, in 2006 and also acted in ‘Rishtiyan da ki rakhiye naa’ at Lawrence School, Sanawar. After the diploma, Guninder plans to pursue a two-year production course which, he hopes, would open the doors to Bollywood and Hollywood. 

How the con woman cracked up

Batala: The local police found Sanjana, 24, arrested from Gurgaon for a high-profile cyber crime, a tough nut to crack. For eight hours, she did not give her investigators any lead. Later, three cyber experts were pressed into service. Even then she did not say anything about her modus operandi. Then, SSP Daljinder Singh Dhillon interrogated her in the presence of four women officers, asking her about what she did at her workplace, following which Sanjana started spilling the beans. “Her seniors at a Gurgaon call centre trusted her blindly. That helped her play the con woman to near-perfection,” the SSP said.

No place for animals in this virtual lab

Faridkot: Even as the use of animals for dissection in medical classrooms is banned, the local Guru Gobind Singh Medical College is teaching anatomy and biological processes in a virtual lab. “Many leading medical schools over the world have started using this method. It is also being promoted by the Medical Council of India and the University Grants Commission,” said Dr Raj Bahadur, Vice-Chancellor, Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS). He said the lab would help students learn pharmacology without using animals for experiments.

Railways, don’t go off track

Bathinda: A local resident, Baldev Singh, has shot off a letter to the Railway Minister, complaining about the wrong use of words in the Swachh Bharat message on posters and placards at railway stations. He pointed out that the word ‘throw’ had been written as ‘through’. He added that such mistakes showed the railway authorities in a poor light.

‘Sukhbir 2017’: SAD’s Plan B?

Muktsar: Even though the SAD is repeatedly saying that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal will be the alliance’s CM face again for the 2017 polls, it seems the party’s young brigade wants to project SAD chief Sukhbir Badal for the top post. The Youth Akali Dal (YAD) recently started a campaign, ‘Youth For Punjab’, and unveiled publicity material titled ‘Sukhbir 2017’, carrying his photo. A majority of YAD activists shared this photo on social media. Now is that the party’s Plan B?

Contributed by Anirudh Gupta, Ravi Dhaliwal, Raj Sadosh, Archit Watts, Balwant Garg and Gurdeep Mann