AAP crisis: Sacked Delhi Minister Kapil Mishra to 'expose tanker scam' today

May 7, 2017

New Delhi, May 7: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Kapil Mishra was on Friday sacked as Delhi's Water Minister by chief minister and party convener Arvind Kejriwal.

Najafgarh MLA Kailash Gahlot, who was inducted into the Cabinet yesterday along with Seemapuri MLA Rajendra Pal Gautam, will handle Mishra's portfolio.

Mishra is expected to hold a press conference at 11 AM today, and share information about a "tanker scam" - a promise he made in a tweet last evening. He has also sought a meeting with Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal.

Why was mishra sacked?

Kapil Mishra is among the handful of party leaders to have backed their AAP colleague Kumar Vishwas, who left the party red-faced when he indirectly attacked the Delhi government in a video in the run-up to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections.

After the polls - in which AAP was crushed by a rampant Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - Vishwas said electronic voting machines weren't responsible for the defeat, contradicting the party's official position.

And when the now-suspended Amanatullah Khan accused Vishwas of being a "BJP-RSS agent" and of planning a coup against Kejriwal, Mishra sided with the latter during the infighting that ensued. The AAP chief is believed to have been unhappy with the lobbying of MLAs and ministers within the party.

The decision to fire Mishra was taken after AAP legislators alleged at a meeting with Kejriwal that a major water crisis during the MCD polls caused their candidates to lose.

While Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Friday cited water management during the Delhi municipal elections as the reason for Kapil Mishra's dismissal, AAP's leadership appeared to send a clear message that it wouldn't tolerate any discipline.

'Massive tanker scam expose'

Just minutes before Sisodia announced Mishra's removal, the former water minister tweeted that he would do "a massive expose on (a) tanker scam" today, and that he would make public the "explosive details" he had shared with Arvind Kejriwal.

He has threatened to level charges against those "close to Kejriwal," and has sought an appointment with the Anti-Corruption Bureau chief to provide more evidence.

"I was about to reveal big names and perhaps, because of that such a decision has been taken against me", Mishra said on Friday, after his dismissal.

And yet, as of 8.40 on Sunday morning, Mishra - who said he hadn't been officially informed about his sacking - continued to say in his Twitter handle's description that he was a "proud member of (the) Cabinet of Arvind Kejriwal ji."

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Average age of school children picking up drugs, smoking habit in 10 Indian cities around 13 years!

News Network

December 13,2025

New Delhi: School-going children are picking up drug and smoking habits and engaging in consumption of alcohol, with the average age of introduction to such harmful substances found to be around 13 years, suggesting a need for earlier interventions as early as primary school, a multi-city survey by AIIMS-Delhi said.

The findings also showed substance use increased in higher grades, with grade XI/XII students two times more likely to report use of substances when compared with grade VIII students. This emphasised the importance of continued prevention and intervention through middle and high school.

The study led by Dr Anju Dhawan of AIIMS's National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre, published in the National Medical Journal of India this month, looks at adolescent substance use across diverse regions.

The survey included 5,920 students from classes 8, 9, 11 and 12 in urban government, private and rural schools across 10 cities -- Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Delhi, Dibrugarh, Hyderabad, Imphal, Jammu, Lucknow, Mumbai, and Ranchi. The data were collected between May 2018 and June 2019.

The average age of initiation for any substance was 12.9 (2.8) years. It was lowest for inhalants (11.3 years) followed by heroin (12.3 years) and opioid pharmaceuticals (without prescription; 12.5 years).

Overall, 15.1 per cent of participants reported lifetime use, 10.3 per cent reported past year use, and 7.2 per cent reported use in the past month of any substance, the study found.

The most common substances used in the past year, after tobacco (4 per cent) and alcohol (3.8 per cent), were opioids (2.8 per cent), followed by cannabis (2 per cent) and inhalants (1.9 per cent). Use of non-prescribed pharmaceutical opioids was most common among opioid users (90.2 per cent).

On being asked, 'Do you think this substance is easily available for a person of your age' separately for each substance category, nearly half the students (46.3 per cent) endorsed that tobacco products and more than one-third of the students (36.5 per cent) agreed that a person of their age can easily procure alcohol products.

Similarly, for Bhang (21.9 per cent), ganja/charas (16.1 per cent), inhalants (15.2 per cent), sedatives (13.7 per cent), opium and heroin (10 per cent each), the students endorsed that these can be easily procured.

About 95 per cent of the children, irrespective of their grade, agreed with the statement that 'drug use is harmful'.

The rates of substance use (any) among boys were significantly higher than those of girls for substance use (ever), use in the past year and use in the past 30 days. Compared to grade VIII students, grade IX students were more likely, and grade XI/XII students were twice as likely to have used any substance (ever).

The likelihood of past-year use of any substance was also higher for grade IX students and for grade XI/XII students as compared to grade VIII students.

About 40 per cent of students mentioned that they had a family member who used tobacco or alcohol each. The use of cannabis (any product) and opioid (any product) by a family member was reported by 8.2 per cent and 3.9 per cent of students, respectively, while the use of other substances, such as inhalants/sedatives by family was 2-3 per cent, the study found.

A relatively smaller percentage of students reported use of tobacco or alcohol among peers as compared to among family members, while a higher percentage reported inhalants, sedatives, cannabis or opioid use among peers.

Children using substances (past year) compared to non-users reported significantly higher any substance use by their family members and peers.

There were 25.7 per cent students who replied 'yes' to the question 'conflicts/fights often occur in your family'. Most students also replied affirmatively to 'family members are aware of how their time is being spent' and 'damily members are aware of with whom they spend their time'.

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