Mumbai, October 13
Polling was largely peaceful in Maharashtra with around 45 per cent turnout provisionally reported shortly after 5 pm when the voting closed.

The Election Commission officials estimate that the actual polling would be in the region of 48-50 per cent. The voting was held at 84,136 polling stations. There are 3,559 contenders, including 211 women, for the 288 Assembly seats in the state. The counting of votes will take place on October 22.

The turnout was uneven with Naxalite-affected Gadchiroli reporting 55-60 per cent turnout, while most of the Mumbai voters chose to stay away. By 3 pm, just around 25 per cent of the voters bothered to show up, though the long queues outside the polling stations, an hour before the closing time, indicated that the turnout would touch around 35-40 per cent.

The turnout was high in slum areas as political workers fanned out late in the afternoon to get people out to vote. However, the middle-classvoters were fewer in numbers at the polling stations even after the administration forced closure of shopping malls and restaurants. Tour operators reported a large number of bookings from Mumbai as people combined the weekend and a day-off (Monday) to take a long break outside the city. Among the early voters, who showed up to exercise their franchise , included Bollywood stars Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar, Sanjay Dutt, Amitabh Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra, Shabana Azmi and her husband Javed Akhtar, cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, industrialist Anil Ambani and others. Bal Thackeray and his nephew Raj Thackeray also queued up to cast theirvotes. According to the EC officials polling was largely peaceful except for a major clash between paramilitary forces and the Naxalites in Gadchiroli. In the communally sensitive town of Malegaon clashes broke out between activists of the Shiv Sena and the NCP and some cars were set on fire. Police said 17 people have been arrested so far.

Meanwhile, the police filed a complaint against the Congress MLA Janardhan Chandurkar, contesting from Bandra East in Mumbai, for allegedly distributing money to voters. The police said Rs 15,000 were recovered from his car. However, Chandurkar said the money was his driver's personal cash.In Ghatkopar, the police booked some activists of the MaharashtraNavnirman Sena after they got into a scuffle with the police. In thesame constituency, Ram Kadam, an Independent candidate, was booked forallegedly trying to mislead voters. Meanwhile, Maoists attempted to disrupt polls in the Gadchiroli district. According to the police, the rebels opened fire on the security personnel guarding the Aheri and Armori polling booths. Though no one was hurt, voters, mainly tribals, stayed away.

Polling was scheduled between 9 am and 3 pm due to the Naxal trouble here. However, no voter had turned up at these stations till 2 pm, according to the reports. Meanwhile, at the remote Bonde polling station in Korchi Taluka in the same district there were reports of the rebels surrounding the area.

According to the police, around 30 polling staff and police have beensurrounded by Maoists and heavy exchange of fire was on till late afternoon.

Guwahati, October 13
In a befitting rebuff to China’s opposition to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s election visit to Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh, the tribal voters in the hill state today turned out in large numbers to exercise their franchise to to elect their representatives to the state Assembly.

Deputy chief electoral officer DJ Bhattacherjee informed over phone from Itanagar that over 72 per cent polling was witnessed in the state. He said the percentage may go up to 75 when reports from some remote areas would be received.

Voting was by and large peaceful in the state, where the tribals dressed in colourful traditional attire thronged over 2,000 polling stations to choose their representatives amongst 154 candidates. Election was held in 57 constituencies today as the three ruling Congress candidates, including the Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu, from the three constituencies --- Lumla, Tawang and Mukto -- in Tawang district had been declared unopposed.

Meanwhile, the CM has asked China to refrain from making claim over the state. “China has nothing to do with the internal affairs of this border state. Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India. All Arunachalis are citizens of India and they came out in overwhelming numbers today to participate in the democratic process to elect their new representatives,” said Dorjee Khandu today in a statement issued to the press.

He wad reacting to China’s opposition to the PM’s visit visit to Pasighat to address an election rally on October 3.

He expressed surprise at Beijing’s reaction to the PM coming to address a Congress rally. “Arunachal has a democratically elected government and is represented by three MPs in the Parliament of India. Arunachalis want good relationship with their neighbours across the border. Both sides should make efforts to reopen border trade through the traditional routes for mutual benefits and peaceful coexistence,” the Chief Minister further added.

New Delhi, October 13
The university system is in for uniformity, with the government today mooting a common entrance test - along the lines of engineering, medical and management tests - for 15 new central universities. Of these, 13 have commenced their academic sessions from this year, barring Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.

Combined tests would spare the parents and students the labour of shunting across campuses for admission to specific varsities. The system would be extended to the existing 25 central universities later.

New Delhi, October 13
Asserting that his country was determined to address concerns about the safety of Indian students, Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith today assured India that all those who had committed offences against Indian nationals in his land would be brought to book.

Noting that Australia was a culturally diverse country, he stressed during official-level talks with External Affairs Minister SM Krishna that his country had a zero tolerance approach towards violence and racial prejudice.

An External Affairs Ministry spokesman said the two leaders discussed a wide range of issues, including bilateral, regional and international development.

In particular, both are keen to move ahead in the field of energy cooperation. India has been importing coal and liquefied natural gas from Australia. Earlier Australia had ruled out uranium exports to India on the plea that New Delhi was not a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. It was not clear if the issue of uranium supply figured during the meeting.

Meanwhile, Krishna welcomed the steps initiated by Australia to check attacks on Indian students while emphasising that India was fully committed to working with Australia to ensure that the education links binding the countries together were not compromised by poor quality education providers and unscrupulous education agents.

The Australian Government had introduced a legislation that required all global education providers to register by the end of 2010 against strengthened criteria, a joint statement issued by both countries said.

Smith reiterated Australia’s strong support to India for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. He also highlighted his country’s support for India’s membership of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation grouping when the membership moratorium ends next year.

Looking forward to the next meeting of the bilateral joint working group on counter-terrorism and immigration, they noted the need for practical cooperation in areas such as intelligence, law enforcement, border security and terrorist financing and money laundering.

On a free trade agreement between the two countries, it was noted that the decision to undertake a feasibility study in this regard was an indication of the great potential for growth in bilateral trade.

New Delhi, October 13
Nobel laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan has expressed disenchantment with people from India "bothering" him "clogging" up his email box and dubbed as "strange" their sudden urge to reach out to him.

"All sorts of people from India have been writing to me, clogging up my email box. It takes me an hour or two to just remove their mails," he said. He said the deluge of emails had buried important communications from colleagues or from journals concerning papers we have in press.

"Do these people have no consideration? It is OK to take pride in the event, but why bother me?" the 57-year-old Indian-American scientist wondered in an email interview to PTI.

"There are also people who have never bothered to be in touch with me for decades who suddenly feel the urge to connect. I find this strange," said Ramakrishnan, who shared this year's Nobel Prize for Chemistry with two others.

He expressed anguish over "all sorts of lies" published about him in a section of the media that he went to school and pre-Science in Chidambaram, the Tamil Nadu temple town where he was born in 1952.

"People I don't know, for example a Mr Govindrajan, claim that they were my teachers at Annamalai University which I never attended, since I left Chidambaram at the age of three," Ramakrishnan clarified.

Ramakrishnan said that it was a good thing if his winning the Nobel Prize encouraged people to read about the work, read books and take interest in science.

"But I, personally, am not important. The fact that I am of Indian origin is even less important. We are all human beings, and our nationality is simply an accident of birth," he said. On reports that he has been shortlisted for a job in India, Ramakrishnan said he was in no mood to leave his laboratory in Cambridge where he was enjoying his work.

"Nobody has approached me about an offer to work in India. However, I can categorically state that if they did so, I would refuse immediately," he said.

He was reacting to questions about reports that his name was being considered for the post of Director of the country's premier lab Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology. — PTI

After remaining on toes for two days during the Maoist strike, the state government authorities have another ‘tough’ job at their hand: To ensure proper security cover for the Congress youth icon Rahul Gandhi, who will be on a two-day visit to Jharkhand beginning tomorrow.

The Nehru-Gandhi scion is eyeing Jharkhand’s tribals and Dalits, as he has been doing in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and some other states.

In normal times, the state civil and police authorities would not have felt much pressure to ensure a smooth stay for a top VVIP. But Rahul’s visit starts the very next day of the Naxal bandh, which witnessed massive violence in various parts of the state.

The authorities are worried about the Congress general secretary and Lok Sabha MP’s security as his visit will take him to many places which are heavily Naxal-infested. Notably, Maoists are active in 18 of the 24 districts of Jharkhand. Rahul’s aim, according to the party leaders, is to hear with ‘genuine passion’ the plight of the poor. Another purpose is to identify the ‘potential candidates’ for strengthening the youth Congress. The Indian Youth Congress is already carrying out a membership drive in Jharkhand.

The Congress sources said the idea is to shortlist some smart, young candidates for the future Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

Rahul will interact with potential candidates at two ST conventions, one SC congress, one young women seminar, besides Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee meeting.

The party’s Lok Sabha Member from Punjab, Vijay Inder Singhla, who is Rahul Gandhi’s programme coordinator, said: “The Congress general secretary wants to hear the tribal people directly at the ST/SC conventions.”

As per the schedule, Rahul will attend the ST convention at Sahibganj on October 14, followed by potential candidate meet at Dumka, another similar meet at Dhanbad, young women convention at Hazaribagh and in the evening he is expected to meet the state party office-bearers in Ranchi.

On Thursday, the Congress leader will address a press conference early in the morning, attend the SC convention at Chatra, potential candidate meet at Daltonganj, ST convention at Chaibasa and final potential candidates’ meeting at Jamshedpur.

New Delhi, October 13
A move aimed at winning over the loyalties of tribals in Jharkhand, the Union Home Ministry today decided to withdraw over a lakh cases against the Maoists. Separately, the government announced that it would be launching a major anti-Naxal offensive next month.

The Governor of Naxal-hit Jharkhand, K Sankarnaryanan, had pointed out how it was necessary to withdraw the cases relating to petty issues for which tribals were being harassed unnecessarily, Home ministry officials said today. The cases were that of stealing fruits from forest, cutting wood, grazing cattle, hunting and entering reserved forests without permission.

A senior Home ministry official said the tribals had been running from pillar to post to get these cases solved. As Jharkhand is under the President’s Rule, the Home ministry is empowered to take such a decision.

The other major development of the day was the decision to launch a massive operation against the Maoists next month, a top Home ministry official said. Last week, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) had approved the government's new plan. In the first phase, the operation would be launched in six districts and the state police would be assisted by the CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action), a central force. Some 40,000 paramilitary personnel had been picked out for the operations and more would be joining soon.

The anti-Naxal operations would be carried out in 20 states (in phases) affected by the Maoist menace.

Kolkata, October 13
Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee said yesterday the central government’s decision to use force in combating the Maoist insurgents instead of “looking into their problems and redressing their grievances” would not resolve the issue. “Armed operations against Maoists won’t solve the problem”, she asserted.

She urged Home Minister P Chidambaram “not to play into the hands of the Marxists and allow them to use central forces for their political interests in the name of protecting the people against Maoist attacks”.

Talking to reporters, she said though she was opposed to the Maoists taking up arms against innocent people she disapproved of the plan to launch “indiscriminate strikes” against the insurgents by the CRPF and other paramilitary forces, adding this would entail civilian casualties.

Mamata suggested leaders of Maoist groups should be invited to the negotiating table, as she believed “many of their problems could be resolved only by discussing them”. She said she herself could “act as a mediator” by inviting Maoist leaders for talks with the government.

New Delhi, October 13
The exit polls conducted by at least two television news channels have predicted a clear majority for the Congress in Haryana and a hung assembly in Maharashtra even as these polls put the Congress-NCP alliance in Maharashtra ahead of its immediate rivals, the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance.

Of the three states that went to polls today, namely Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh, Maharashtra is the only state where there was some element of suspense, because as far as Haryana is concerned most political observers believe there is no confusion and even though the Congress majority could be reduced somewhat, it is certain to return to power once again.

With an Election Commission ban on publicising exit polls before the conclusion of the polling, most surveyors seem to have lost interest in exit polls. But at least two news channels - CNN-IBN and Star News in coalition of AC Neilson - have stuck their necks out to make predictions of results that will be out only on October 22.

The CNN-IBN has hedged its bet and predicted 135-145 seats for the ruling Congress-NCP combine. Since a simple majority in the 288-member house requires the magic figure of 145, the CNN-IBN exit polls do not rule out the possibility of the ruling combine returning to power for the third term on its own. Star News gives the ruling combine 137 seats, eight seats short of a clear majority.

As for the main challenger and rival SS-BJP combine, Star News has specifically given the combine 113 while the CNN-IBN gives this combine 105-115. If these predictions come true then the SS-BJP combine will be no closer to power in 2009, than it was in 2004. There was of course complete agreement between both exit polls on the Raj Thackeray-led MNS. Both Star News and CNN-IBN give the MNS 12 seats.

Star News of course puts the Congress way ahead of others with 89 seats. Even CNN-IBN feels the Congress will improve its tally substantially compared to 2004 giving it 75 seats.

CNN-IBN gives others and Independents 25-35 seats while Star News keeps it them pegged low at 21 with only five for the third front.

In Haryana, the Star News exit polls predict 57 seats for the Congress in a house of 90, which implies a clear majority for the Congress and implicitly re-run for Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. However the INLD, led by former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala, is likely to do pretty well with 18 seats, double of what it got in 2004. In spite of predictions of clear majority for the Congress in Haryana, if these results turn out to be correct, then this is certainly a come down from the recently concluded general elections where the Congress lost only one of the 10 Lok Sabha seats from Haryana.

In Haryana, Congress had the advantage of divided opposition with the BJP breaking off last minute just before the elections with the INLD and similarly the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) breaking off from the BSP just days before the filing of nominations commenced. The exit polls predict just one seat for the BJP and two for the BSP. The HJC, led by former chief minister Bhajan Lal, another claimant to the office of the chief minister, will be pegged down at only nine seats, said the StarNews poll.

Hyderabad, October 13
After a brief lull, the ‘Jagan-for-CM’ campaigners have renewed their political activity with the return of the young MP to the city after a gap of two weeks.

A steady stream of visitors, including ministers, MPs, MLAs and MLCs, have been thronging his residence ever since his arrival here yesterday and pledging their support to him.“We are hopeful that the high command will honour the wishes of people and party leaders and make Jagan Mohan Reddy the next Chief Minister. People do not want us to visit their villages till Jagan is made the CM,” Women and Child Welfare Minister K Surekha said after meeting the Kadapa MP.Three other ministers A Ramnarayan Reddy, B Srinivas Reddy and M Varaprasad and several legislators and MLCs called on Jagan and discussed the political situation.

The first-time MP was camping in Bangalore for several days after paying homage to his father YS Rajasekhar Reddy at the helicopter crash site at Pavuralagutta in Kurnool district. His last public appearance was the memorial meeting at Kaluvagutta where he vowed to work for realizing his father’s goals. Later, he also visited the flood-affected areas in his native Kadapa district.

Jagan’s return to the state capital has stirred up political activity in his camp, which has been maintaining a low profile. The recent floods and the resultant human tragedy had applied brakes to the campaign for anointing him as Chief Minister.

New Delhi, October 13
A pilot and a co-pilot of Air India, who were accused of molestation and assault of an air hostess, were arrested and later released on bail this evening, police said.

Pilot Ranbir Arora and co-pilot Aditya Chopra were called for questioning this evening and later arrested in connection with the mid-air scuffle on the Sharjah-Delhi flight involving the air hostess and a flight purser.

”As the offence is bailable, they were released after registering their arrest and questioning,” a senior police official said.

Air hostess Komal Singh had approached police on October three claiming that she was assaulted and molested by Arora and Chopra inside the cockpit during the journey to Delhi on the same day.

The arrests came ten days after the registration of a case against them under IPC sections of voluntarily causing hurt (Section 323), assault or use of criminal force to a woman to outrage her modesty (Section 354), making gestures to insult the modesty of woman (509) and common intention (Section 34).

The air hostess had also approached the National Commission for Women (NCW) seeking “justice.”

The commission, which constituted a five-member panel to look into the matter, today said it would come out with guidelines within a month on working conditions in airlines in the wake of complaints by some employees. Earlier, on October 7, the two pilots, flight purser Amit Khanna and the air hostess appeared before a committee set up by AI to look into the matter.

The airline management had constituted a five-member committee, headed by a senior woman official, to examine sexual harassment charges levelled by the air hostess involved in the incident. This committee also had a representative from an NGO. Arora and Khanna were suspended while Singh and the co-pilot were de-rostered after the incident.

The mid-air scuffle, which started after verbal exchanges between pilots and the airhostess during pre-flight briefing session ahead of take-off from Sharjah, had raised concerns of flight safety. As many as 106 passengers and a seven-member crew were on board the Airbus A-320 when the incident occurred.

In her complaint, the air hostess claimed that she went inside the cockpit to greet the pilots where she was asked by them to sit there.

When she refused, the air hostess claimed, the pilots made some lewd remarks. She then came out of the cockpit and later returned with a flight attendant when she was allegedly manhandled. — PTI

New Delhi, October 13
The Prime Minister’s Office today denied the BJP’s charge that it had maintained silence over a letter written by Indian Ambassador to the US Meera Shankar on May 12, 2009, giving instances of corruption wherein certain Indian entities are alleged to have been illegally funded by some US companies.

Official sources said the PMO had written to the Department of Personnel on June 1 demanding an enquiry into the matter.

The Department of Personnel had promptly sent letters to the ministries of Agriculture, Defence and Railways, Department of Revenue and the Maharashtra Government to look into the charges.

The PMO had asked the Department of Personnel to expedite the investigation and send the action taken report (ATR).

The department informed the PMO in early October that the Agriculture Ministry had referred the case pertaining to the ministry to the CBI. Other governmental departments and the Maharashtra Government have been asked to speed up their inquiries and send ATRs by the end of the month.

In her letter written on May 12 to Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister TKA Nair, Meera Shankar mentioned bribe amounts paid by US companies to officials of the Indian Navy, Maharashtra State Electricity Board, Indian Railways, Indian Central Insecticides Board and other unnamed senior officials to secure government contracts.

In one instance, she cited a bribe of $132,500 given to Indian Navy officials by an agent of York International Corporation, a global provider of heating, air conditioning and refrigeration products.

According to the letter, the money was transferred over a period of six years (2000- 2006) for placing 215 orders.

Some of the US companies listed by the envoy that paid the bribes had already been fined for “inappropriate payments”. The companies mentioned are Mario Covino of Control Companies, Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation and Dow Chemicals.

Lucknow, October 13
To check ragging in educational institutions across the state the Mayawati government today endorsed an ordinance called the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Ragging in Educational Institutions, 2009.

The ordinance was endorsed at a cabinet meeting presided over by CM Mayawati. According to an official press release despite Supreme Court directives banning ragging in the state stray incidents continue to be reported from various medical, engineering and institutions of higher learning. “To strictly curb such incidents of ragging in the state the need for a stringent law was felt. As the Vidhan Sabha is not in session the present ordinance is being endorsed for implementation”, stated a release.

Recently, there has been a spate of ragging incidents in various private and government educational institutions.

The latest was the suicide of a first year girl student of a private engineering college in Lucknow after reportedly being ragged by her seniors.

In September 15 third year students of B Sc (Agriculture) of UP Autonomous College, Varanasi had to be rusticated following an assault on first year students. Again in September four engineering students of the BHU were arrested for allegedly ragging a first-year student outside the varsity campus.

In August the Allahabad Vice-Chancellor had punished eight students for ragging in the most innovative manner. They had to read a new book from their prescribed law syllabus and write a 1000 word review within 15 days that the VC had personally assessed.

BRIEFLY

Scribes to protest killings by ultras
Guwahati: A group of journalists here has decided to lead a protest rally against the dastardly killings by ultras in the north-eastern states. The group has appealed to the people of Assam to take part in the rally, which will be organised on October 15 in front of the Press Club in Guwahati. Besides protesting against killing of innocent people by insurgent groups, the rally will also denounce the Assam government’s “irresponsible attitude” towards victims of Bhimajuli massacre. — TNS