Congress declares highest total income at Rs 1,687 crore followed by BJP

Hyderabad, Mar 12: Indian National Congress topped the chart of political parties in India by declaring the highest total income at Rs 1,687.12 crore, followed by the BJP, for the period 2010-11 to 2013-14, according to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

"The total income of national parties, excluding BJP, INC and the Nationalist Congress Party for 2014-15, collectively for five years (2010-11 to 2014-15), from all over India was Rs 4,261.23 crore.

"Despite lack of information for 2014-15, Congress declared the highest total income from all over India of Rs 1,687.12 crore followed by BJP with Rs 1,475.44 crore," the NGO said.

The report titled 'Analysis of Income Tax Returns and Donations received by National and Regional parties of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for FY 2010-11 to 2014-15 was prepared by the 'Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Election Watch' and ADR.

"Income for INC from sale of coupons/publication amounted to Rs 1,311.96 crore (77.7 per cent of total income)," stated the report released at a press conference by the office-bearers of both the bodies.

Voluntary contributions/donations is the most common and the highest source of income for most of the national and regional political parties. It forms 46.49 per cent (Rs 2039.647 crore) of the total income of all political parties together, it said.

BJP has received 87.93 per cent income (Rs 1,297.37 crore) from voluntary contributions while Congress received 10.93 per cent (Rs 184.408 crore) income from donations.

According to its IT returns, 54.39 per cent (Rs 212.78 crore) of the total income of BSP was through voluntary contributions, but the party declared that it never received any amount above Rs 20,000 as donations, the report claimed.

ADR recommended that national and regional political parties must provide all information of their finances under RTI.

Besides, ECI should impose rules that no part of the form 24A submitted by political parties providing details of donations above Rs 20,000 should be left blank and full details of donors should be made available for public scrutiny under the RTI.

It further recommended that any party which does not submit its donation statement to the ECI on or before the due date, their income should not be tax exempted and defaulting parties should be derecognised.

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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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