Akhilesh’s hands stained with blood of riot victims, claims Yogi

Agencies

May 23, 2018

Kairana , MAY 23: As campaigning in the Lok Sabha bye-election in this communally sensitive constituency picks up, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said his predecessor Akhilesh Yadav’s hands were stained with the blood of victims of the Muzaffarnagar riots.

“The SP chief doesn’t have the courage to come here and campaign. His hands are stained with the blood of Muzaffarnagar riot victims," he said in a meeting at Ambheta in Saharanpur district yesterday.

The chief minister’s reference was to the Hindu-Muslim riots in adjoining Muzaffarnagar district in 2013, when several Muslim families fled their homes.

In 2016, there was communal tension in Shamli district’s Kairana block with allegations that the threatened Hindus were leaving their homes.

Attacking the SP government, which was in power then, Adityanath said, “During the previous government, there were no jobs for the youngsters and only a specific community got jobs.”

“We have adopted the practice of taking people from every caste and religion along with us,” he said.

The May-28 polls are being held to fill the Kairana Lok Sabha seat, spread over Saharanpur and Shamli districts, which fell vacant after the death of BJP’s Hukum Singh.

His daughter Mriganka Singh is now the BJP candidate, pitted against Rashtriya Lok Dal’s Tabassum Hasan who is backed by the opposition, including Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party.

The opposition hopes to repeat the shock defeat its joint candidates delivered to the BJP recently in the bypolls in Gorakhpur and Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh.

Attacking the opposition, Adityanath said, “During elections they get united, because they have nothing to do with development and good governance.”

“All of them are talking about getting united, but the unity is not visible. The SP president is yet to be seen here, as people will question him about Muzaffarnagar riots if he comes here,” he said.

“Today, it is not the traders, farmers or youngsters who are undertaking an exodus. It is the criminals who are doing so or the SP is doing so,” he said.

The chief minister said the state, which had earlier earned disrepute due to casteism and family politics, now has an agenda revolving around farmers, traders and the youth.

“The BJP will not allow any injustice to happen to the farmers. A victory for the BJP means a victory for prosperity and development,” he said.

Also out campaigning today, UP minister Laxmi Narayan Chaudhary said a BJP win in Kairana, will avenge the loss of Gorakhpur and Phulpur.

“The revenge for the party’s defeat in the bye-elections held in Gorakhpur and Phulpur will come from Kairana. This is no ordinary election,” Chaudhary said at a meeting in Shamli’s Bhaiswal village.

“The entire reputation of western UP is at stake, and it is a curtain-raiser for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls,” he added.

He said Mriganka Singh’s victory will be a true tribute to her father who had worked hard to ensure reservation for the Jats.

“A farmer wants a leader who is honest and is of good character. These were the qualities of Chaudhary Charan Singh. And today, both these qualities can be seen in Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath,” he said.

During the meeting, a farmer sought the minister's comment on the delay in paying farmers who had sold sugarcane to the mills.

The minister said the dues accumulated from the time of the past governments had been paid out, and the rest will be settled soon.

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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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