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12 THE HINDU TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2012CHENNAINEWS

CHANDIGARH: Barring a few in-cidents, the single-phase poll-ing for the 117-memberPunjab Assembly on Mondayremained peaceful as initialestimates indicated a recordturnout, which is likely to sur-pass the 75.45 per cent regis-tered in 2007. When reportslast came in, one person waskilled and nine cases of poll-related violence wereregistered.

Talking to journalists,Chief Electoral Officer Ku-sumjit Sidhu said one persondied of bullet injuries whenrival groups clashed in the Fe-rozepur Rural constituency.

An old woman suddenly col-lapsed and died inside a poll-ing station of the AnandpurSahib constituency.

Thanking the people andthose involved in the processfor the smooth conduct of theelections, Ms. Sidhu said thefinal turnout figures would becompiled after the returningofficers sent the reports fromthe constituencies separately.

Polling across the State be-gan at a brisk pace and therewas no let up throughout theday. She said long queues werereported at polling stations af-ter 5 p.m.

A woman journalist of aleading Punjabi daily wasmanhandled in Nabha, while a

scribe was allegedly slappedby Akali Dal legislator Amar-pal Singh Bony in Ajnala. Thepolice registered cases in bothincidents.

The authorities replaced 70malfunctioning electronicvoting machines, though earlyreports said an attempt wasmade to tamper with a ma-chine in Mansa district.

There were interesting re-ports of people using the 49-Ofacility to reject all the candi-dates in their constituencies.At Garhshankar in ShaheedBhagat Singh Nagar district, asmany as 80 citizens of a local-ity opted for the facility tovoice their resentmentagainst apathy by the author-

ities in providing basic civicamenities sinceIndependence.

Ms. Sidhu said six televisionchannels — Aaj Tak, StarNews, Zee News, PTC, TimesNow and NDTV — along withthree newspapers — Ajit, Dai-nik Jagran and Jagbani — wereissued notice for violatingcode of conduct on poll day.

On a complaint, the mediamonitoring committeescanned the content of thePTC coverage and found thatthe channel had interviewedmore Akali Dal-BJP leadersthan Opposition leaders.However, a final decisionwould be taken by the ElectionCommission, she said.

Record voter turnout in Punjab One person dies in group clash in Ferozepur Rural constituency

CONFIDENT: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, State Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh and People’s Party of Punjabchief Manpreet Singh Badal leave polling booths after casting their votes on Monday. — PHOTOS: PTI

Sarabjit Pandher

NEW DELHI: Press Council of In-dia Chairman Justice Mar-kandey Katju on Mondaywarned mediapersons, candi-dates and the election author-ities of strong action if theyindulged in “paid news,”which was a blot ondemocracy.

In a statement, he said hehad been receiving com-plaints from several quartersthat in the ongoing electionsin five States — Manipur, Pun-jab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pra-desh and Goa — themalpractice of paid news waswidespread. “This is a threatto free and fair elections, andit undermines the foundationof democracy and shakes thepeople’s faith in the media.”This malpractice would sub-vert parliamentary democra-cy unless ruthlessly stampedout.

The Council was happy thatthe Election Commission hadalready set up Media Moni-toring Committees district-wise, he said. He urged thosecommittees to keep a strictwatch on suspected cases ofpaid news and report to theEC authorities concerned aswell as to the Council.

Katju warnscandidates,journalists onpaid newsSpecial Correspondent

DEHRA DUN: Braving snow andchill in the higher reaches andenjoying a bright sunny day inthe plains, over 65 per cent ofthe voters in Uttarakhand ex-ercised their franchise forelecting representatives tothe 70-member Vidhan Sab-ha on Monday. Counting ofvotes will be taken up onMarch 6.

“The polling percentagemay go up by a per cent or twoas data is still coming in,” AnilChandola, Additional Direc-tor Information, said at 9 p.m.

Mamta, a bride in Pokhri ofChamoli district, created his-tory of sorts by stopping her‘doli’ (palanquin) at a pollingbooth to cast her vote.

103-year-old Abdul cast hisvote in Tehri. Dozens of vot-ers reached the pollingbooths as early as last eveningin the snow-bound Mukhbaand Harsil areas of Uttar-kashi. Border Roads Organi-sation and State PWDpersonnel tried to keep thesnow-covered roads open tothe public. The greater featwas by those men and womenwho trekked across the snowto cast their votes.

The enthusiasm amongstfirst time-voters was remark-able. “We can elect our MLAor MP now,” chirped 18-year-old Seema and Meenakshi atthe Laxman Vidyalaya pollingcentre in Dehra Dun.

Hundreds of sadhus linedup in Haridwar to cast theirvotes. “We must cast ourvotes and not simply indulgein criticising others,” saidSwami Hari Giri and otherholy men.

The entire exercise waswell managed without anyuntoward incident. Senior of-ficers could be seen rushing toresolve tension at a few plac-es. The polite dedication withwhich the security and poll-ing staff helped the “guests”exercise their right under-scored the State’s adherenceto the motto “Atithi DevoBhava” (Guest is equal togod).

Voting, which began on alow note, picked up after 11a.m. The electorate’s faith inthe democratic system wasvisible in its enthusiasm,though weather hampered aspate of campaign rallies bymajor parties, including theruling Bharatiya Janata Par-ty, the Congress and, to someextent, the Bahujan SamajParty.

Top Congress leaders So-nia Gandhi, Prime MinisterManmohan Singh, FinanceMinister Pranab Mukherjee,Rahul Gandhi and Ghulam

Nabi Azad; BJP leaders NitinGadkari, Rajnath Singh, Mur-li Manohar Joshi, Arun Jait-ley, party spokespersons RaviShankar Prasad and NirmalaSitaraman and Uttar PradeshChief Minister Mayawaticamped here throughout thecanvassing phase. Yoga expo-nent Baba Ramdev, social ac-tivist Anna Hazare and histeam too contributed tobuilding awareness.

Governor Margaret Alvathanked the electorate andofficials for the peaceful con-duct of the polls.

“There seems to be an edgefor the Congress and we willgive a good government if [wereturn],” said State president

Yashpal Arya, after castinghis vote at Bajpur. BesidesMr. Arya, the Chief-Minister-hopefuls in the Congress areHarak Singh Rawat in Rudra-prayag and Indira Hirdeyeshfrom Haldwani.

Casting his vote in DehraDun, Narain Dutt Tiwari, for-mer U.P. Chief Minister, saidhe felt lucky at 87 and did notmind another few years ofsteering the State towardsgreater development. This isnot seen as welcome news forUnion Minister Harish Ra-wat, who has been eying thetop job of late. It may be men-tioned that Mr. Rawat lost therace for the top job to Mr.Tiwari — the high command’s

choice — in 2002.For Chief Minister B.C.

Khanduri the high voter turn-out seemed a good omen.“The people seem to have vot-ed for honesty and I am surethe BJP will win an easy ma-jority… the factual positionwill however be known onMarch 6… so keep the fingerscrossed,” Mr. Khanduri toldThe Hindu on the phone aftercasting his vote in Pauri.

Mr. Khanduri is contestingfrom Kotdwar. The seniorBJP leaders in the fray in-clude the former Chief Minis-ter, Ramesh PokhriyalNishank, Matwar Singh Kan-dari, Prakash Pant and Speak-er Harbans Kapoor.

Uttarakhand voters undeterred by snowC.K. Chandramohan

IT’S MY RIGHT: A 91-year-old woman gets ready to cast her vote at a pollingstation in Dehra Dun on Monday. — PHOTO: VIRENDER SINGH NEGI

CHANDULI (U.P.): Facing flakover his comments on rapevictims, Samajwadi Party su-premo Mulayam Singh did aU-turn on Monday saying hehad only spoken about justiceto the rape victims and notabout providing governmentjobs to them.

“We have said about justiceto the rape victims, this [pro-viding jobs to them] has beenadded to it,” he told journal-ists when asked about hisstatement on Sunday of pro-viding government jobs torape victims.

The SP leader said stern ac-tion would be taken againstrapists if his party came topower in the State.

Addressing a poll rally inSiddharth Nagar on Sunday,Mr. Singh announced thatrape victims would be givengovernment jobs if his partywas voted to power in UttarPradesh. “The incidents ofrape will be checked effective-ly and government jobs will begiven to rape victims or one oftheir family members in theState,” he had said.

Opposition parties hadsharply reacted to Mr. Singh’sannouncement terming it“laughable” and a “cruel joke.”

BJP leader Uma Bharti saidMr. Singh lacked understand-ing of social concerns.

Weird promise: TirathIn New Delhi, Women and

Child Development MinisterKrishna Tirath termed Mr.Singh’s promise “weird.”“This is weird thinking. Thisis wrong,” Ms. Tirath toldjournalists. “We should helpthe rape victim, but not by giv-ing such greed ... We havelaws,” she said.

Taking a dig at Mr. Singh,she said, “Elections are hap-pening. They can say anything... such statements are notright.” — PTI

Mulayamretractsremarks onrape victims

KANKER: Seven members ofthe banned Communist Partyof India (Maoist) surren-dered in Chhattisgarh’sKanker district on Monday —a sign, police officers say, thata new policy of rapproche-ment with rebel cadres isgradually paying dividends.

Five of the seven surren-dered Maoists are from theRowghat Area Committee, ofwhich three are relatively se-nior commanders. Of the re-maining two, Sunil aliasRajesh Kumar is a member ofthe East Bastar DivisionalCommittee, while his wifeJenni alias Jayanti Kutari is acommander of the Maoistcultural division called Chet-na Natya Mandali.

Under the State and Cen-tral surrender policies, seniorcadres like Mr. Sunil shall beeligible for at least Rs. 3 lakh,while junior cadres shall getat least Rs.2 lakh. The Kankerpolice offer an additionalRs.10,000 to all surrenderedMaoists.

“This is the first time that asenior cadre like a DivisionalCommittee member has sur-rendered in Kanker,” said Ra-hul Bhagat, KankerSuperintendent of Police,“We benefit from surrendersfar more than encounters, assurrenders help us learnabout Maoist strategy…iden-tifying members of the urbannetwork and the logistics ofthe Maoists.”

Mr. Bhagat said theMaoists surrendered after along process of negotiationthat began with the surrenderof four guerillas last year.“Those who surrendered lastyear helped us identify key in-dividuals who would be in-strumental in contactingother fighters,” said Mr. Bha-gat, “It is impossible for

cadres in the forest to contactthe police directly, so we needto know whom to know.”

In interviews conducted inthe presence of policemen,the surrendered guerillaseach said the attitude of a re-bel leadership was largelydrawn from Andhra Pradesh,towards cadres drawn fromChhattisgarh, was a majorreason for their surrender.“The Andhra leadership looksat Chhattisgarhis very differ-ently,” said Mr. Sunil,“Chhattisgarhis are alwaysmade to do menial tasks likesentry duty and we are also onthe frontlines during encoun-ters.” Mr. Sunil also feltChhattisgarh cadres wereprovided inferior weapons incomparison with cadres fromAndhra.

‘No schism’Sources in the intelligence

have long spoken of a schismin Chhattisgarh’s Maoistmovement — pointing outthat while Chhattisgarh trib-als constitute a majority ofthe rank and file, the leader-ship is almost entirely fromAndhra Pradesh. However,Maoist sources have categor-ically denied any such rift.“This is all police propagan-da,” said Maoist spokesper-son Gudsa Usendi in atelephone interview last year,pointing out that surren-dered cadres are invariablybeholden to the police force.

“Once someone surren-ders, the police can makethem say anything. There isno rift in the party. Everymember of the party is entit-led to critique and criticiseother members of the party inour regular meetings,” hesaid.

At the time of print, Mr.Usendi was not available forcomment on this recentround of surrenders.

7 Maoists surrenderin ChhattisgarhAman Sethi

DIGHA PANCHAYAT (JHARKHAND):The political endeavour un-der the Saranda Action Plan(SAP) — not just to bring thegovernment closer to the lo-cal tribal population but alsoto give them a stake in thedemocratic set-up and unfet-ter the control of the Naxa-lites who infest the denseforests — seems to have madesome progress.

Union Minister for RuralDevelopment Jairam Rameshand Jharkhand Chief Minis-ter Arjun Munda hadlaunched the Rs.250-crorescheme about two monthsago to benefit about a pop-ulation of about 35,000 atDigha Panchayat, about 40km from Chotanagra pan-chayat of Manoharpur block.

On Monday, the focus ofthe SAP was on Digha Pan-chayat again when Mr. Ra-mesh, along with theJharkhand Social JusticeMinister Vimla Pradhan laidthe foundation stone for theconstruction of two roads andan integrated developmentcentre (IDC) which will, with-in the same premises, provideimportant facilities such ashealth centre, school, publicdistribution system and pay-ment of pension to the aged,widowed and disabled, toname a few.

“The objective of SAP is toget the government near youand correct the historicalmistake of 50 years of neglectof the tribal and rural people.But without your cooperationthis battle against Naxalism

cannot be won. You have torepose faith in the govern-ment and that your interestscould be best taken care of bythe government and not theNaxalites,” Mr. Ramesh toldthe local people.

He asked them to reposethe responsibility of develop-ment with the government toensure the development ofthe community. “That willput pressure on the govern-ment. It is only if you haveconfidence and faith that thegovernment will work for youand this new scheme willsucceed.”

Stressing that the fightagainst Naxalism was a “longpsychological battle,” Mr. Ra-mesh maintained that thesuccess of the SAP was criticalin taking forward the battleagainst the Naxalites acrossthe country.

He said that without thecooperation of the people, de-ployment of any number ofCentral forces and helicop-ters would not yield the nec-essary result.He alsoemphasised the need for po-litical parties to unite andcome forward to make theirpresence felt in the Naxalite-affected areas. People who at-tended the function in largenumbers aired problemsranging from lack of highersecondary school, health fa-cility and checkdams to mi-gration of youth for want ofjobs.

They also alleged irregular-ities in the execution of theMahatma Gandhi NREGS andrefusal by forest officials to al-low construction of roads.

Ramesh seeks tribal cooperationto combat NaxalismK. Balchand

PUNE: Reiterating that his in-stitute has not “bowed down”to pressure, Symbiosis Col-lege of Arts and CommercePrincipal Hrishikesh Somansaid the decision to postponethe seminar, ‘Voices of Kash-mir’, was taken “mutuallyover an open and friendlychat” with several organisa-tions. “The organisations feltthat the event should be moreinclusive. We do not want anyunnecessary controversy. Ifthese people are so passion-ate about the issue, then theremust be some valid reason.We, as academicians, want tolisten to their views and re-spect them.”

Asked if such interferencein educational institutes wasa dangerous trend, Mr. So-man said: “As a responsibleinstitute, we feel that thelarger goal of students beingmore awareness of Kashmir,

getting exposure to the mu-sic, food, literature andmedia in Kashmir is moreimportant.”

The postponement of theseminar comes two days afterthe institute cancelled thescreening of Sanjay Kak’sfilm on Kashmir, Jashn-e-Azadi, as the right-wingABVP had objected to it.

Sunil Dhar, a member ofPanun Kashmir, told TheHindu: “Sanjay Kak’s film onKashmir, Jashn-e-Azadi,shows the atrocities by theIndian Army. This is com-pletely anti-national. We hada doubt that even the semi-nar would have the sametone. We were told that theorganisers themselves hadn’twatched the film. So we metSymbiosis Founder-DirectorS.B. Mujumdar and he saidthe seminar would be post-poned, and that he wouldlook into the contenthimself.”

Postponement a mutualdecision: SymbiosisAmruta Byatnal

BANGALORE: In just two years,the celebrated adult stem cellresearcher Shinya Yamanakahopes that clinical trials willbegin on curing the once-un-treatable spinal injuries withthe help of “reprogrammed”adult cells or ‘induced pluri-potent stem’ (iPS) cells.

Animal trials have shownpromising results of trans-planting iPS cells to treat pa-ralytic spinal injury, saidProfessor Yamanaka, deliver-ing a lecture on “New Era ofMedicine with iPS Cells” hereon Monday.

The lecture was organisedas part of the Cell Press-TNQIndia Distinguished Lecture-ship Series.

Prof. Yamanaka, who start-ed his career as a physician 25years ago and “tried to be an

orthopaedic surgeon”, said: “Isoon realised I was not so goodat surgery. I also realised thateven a good surgeon can’t helpmany patients suffering fromuntreatable diseases and inju-ries.”

This inspired him to changehis career and get back tostudying “basic medicine”.

That’s where he “met” theiPS cell, which led him to hismajor scientific breakthroughin 2007 allowing him to “re-programme” adult humanskin cells into embryonic-likestem cells.

The iPS cells have revolu-tionised research on regener-ative medicine: they are free

from debates over ethics — of-ten raised in the use of humanembryos — and reduce the riskof tissue rejection after trans-plant. Once established, thesecells can be used to elucidatedisease mechanisms and toscreen drugs.

But creating these cells isboth time and money-con-suming, he said.

It costs as much as U.S. $ 1million to treat just one pa-tient, and takes six to eightmonths to generate, expandand induce differentiation iniPS cells.

“In the case of spinal inju-ries, we have to transplant thecells within a month after the

injury. “To overcome this, we think

it makes sense to create andmaintain an iPS cell bank fromhealthy individuals,” he said.

The risk of rejection by anindividual’s immune systemcan be minimised by matching donors with HLA(human leucocyte antigen), aform of “blood type” for hu-man cells.

In Japan, for instance, just75 unique HLA homozygoteswould match 80 per cent of thepopulation, he explained.

Prof. Yamanaka, who wasawarded the Albert LaskerPrize in 2009 and the WolfPrize in 2011, later answeredquestions from budding biol-ogists and veteran scientistsin the audience.

He will speak next in Chen-nai on February 1 and NewDelhi on February 3 as part ofthe lectureship series.

Hopes rise on treating spinalinjuries with iPS cells transplantDivya Gandhi& Deepa Kurup

NEW DELHI: The South AsiaMedia Commission has ex-pressed serious concern overthe attack on The Times ofIndia newspaper’s office inMumbai last week, saying theincident proved “there is nothaw in the activities of non-state players in targeting themedia because of their per-ceived grievances againstpublished reports.’’

“The attack on the office ofThe Times of India group inMumbai on Saturday is a mat-ter of serious concern,’’ K.K.Katyal, South Asia MediaCommission president, saidin a statement here.

He said the action of theMumbai police in making ini-tial arrests needs to be fol-lowed up by apprehending allthose involved in the attackand by expediting steps totake their cases to courts inorder to get deterrent puni-shment for them. The policehave arrested 28 persons sus-pected to be involved in theattack.

“The attacks on journalistsby non-state sections are anIndia-wide phenomenon, butincidents in the interior donot attract attention,” Mr.Katyal said.

The Commission is an as-sociate of the South AsianFree Media Association.

South Asia Media Commissionconcerned over attack on ToISpecial Correspondent

The iPS cells have revolutionised research onregenerative medicine

They can be used to elucidate diseasemechanisms and to screen drugs

TH Chennai/ CITY News_02 User: cosvg 01-31-2012 00:53 Color: CMYK