'Farmer was financially sound, had no intention to commit suicide'

New Delhi, Apr 23 : The issue of Gajendra Singh's suicide is expected to figure in Parliament as well today. Several opposition parties, including JD(U) and SP, have moved an adjournment motion demanding discussion on the matter.

• A team of Delhi Police is heading to Dausa to further investigate the matter of farmer's suicide. It may be recalled that the Delhi Police Commissioner had ordered an investigation into the matter after being instructed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

• It is being reported that the Delhi Police had advised the AAP to hold rally against Land Ordinance at Ramlila Maidan instead of Jantar Mantar.

• Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal has issued a statement on the farmer's suicide at his party's Jantar Mantar rally. It says: “Loss of life of this farmer in distress is an extremely sad incident. Delhi government does not wish to engage in any blame game on this terrible tragedy and no words can fulfill the irreparable loss caused to Gajendra’s family. We will do everything to find out how such an incident took place in full public view.”

“The Delhi government is committed to the well being of farmers and will continue to strive for their betterment. District Magistrate of the area has already begun his probe into the entire incident and the government will await the inquiry report before any further reaction.”

• Satish Kumar Jain, tehsildar of Nangal, says crop damage in the region was below 24%. “We had sent the report to the government. The limit for disbursing compensation is 33%.” Jain adds that Gajendra Singh was financially sound.

• Mortal remains of deceased farmer Gajendra Singh arrive at his residence in Nangal, Jhamarwada, in Rajasthan's Dausa.

• Gajendra's farmer faints while waiting for his son's mortal remains.

• Workers of both the BJP and Congress will today hold protest against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over farmer Gajendra's suicide at AAP rally.

• He had gone with a hope to get help. We had given him the chit to read it out at the rally, but he did not get an opportunity, says Jaiveer Singh on the suicide note recovered at the rally site.

• Jaiveer Singh, Gajendra's uncle, also reiterates that the deceased farmer was in contact with Manish Sisodia.

• We don’t know what speech was given. We don’t know how he was provoked at the rally and ended up doing this (committing suicide), adds Rajender Singh.

• We have come to know that Gajendra had gone to Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia's house at around 11 am yesterday, before the rally, says Gajendra's cousin Rajender Singh.

• He was not distressed. He had gone to Delhi to represent us over the crop damage that we had suffered due to unseasonal rains, says Girdhari Singh.

• Was it a jungle where Gajendra committed suicide? Wasn't there anyone who could have saved him? asks Girdhari Singh, a relative of Gajendra Singh.

What happened on Wednesday

An AAP rally attended by thousands against the Land Ordinance on Wednesday turned tragic when a Rajasthan farmer, his crops ruined by untimely rains, hanged himself from a tree in the heart of the capital, shocking India and sparking an ugly political blame game.

"Gajendra (Singh)'s death has saddened the nation," Prime Minister Narendra Modi's office said, referring to the father of three who climbed a neem tree at the Jantar Mantar protest site and died after tying his scarf around his neck to a stout branch.

The statement came hours after the dramatic death when Aam Aadmi Party leader Kumar Vishwas, addressing the mass gathering, suddenly spotted the man on the tree, seemingly precariously perched, and asked police and AAP activists to bring him down.

Three party activists clambered up the tree and untied the scarf. But before they could take a good grip of him, the limp body slipped from their hands and fell with a thud, only to cause chaos at the rally.

Shouting anti-police slogans, some volunteers rushed the man to the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, around two kilometers away, where doctors declared him dead.

A hand-written 'suicide note' in Hindi found at the spot said the man was taking his life because rains had destroyed his crops. He ended the note with "Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, Jai Rajasthan".

In no time, a political war erupted.

Taken aback by the suicide, AAP leaders blamed Delhi Police, saying police did not even respond to their appeals to bring the man down from the tree.

"Police didn't play their role properly. They should have made efforts to save Gajendra Singh. It were AAP activists who put their lives at risk and brought him down and took him to hospital," said Kumar Vishwas.

Asked why the rally was not halted after the incident, AAP leader Sanjay Singh said: "If we had stopped the rally, there would have been a stampede or other law and order problems."

Police denied AAP's charges and said an inquiry was on to find out what happened. The investigation was ordered by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, to whom Delhi Police reports.

The Bharatiya Janata Party hit out at the AAP. Its spokesman Sambit Patra asked: "Why didn't AAP leaders stop the farmer from committing suicide?"

The first to reach the hospital was Congress leader Ajay Maken, who blamed both police and the AAP for the suicide. Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi came calling later.

In Rajasthan, the family of the deceased farmer said Gajendra was shaken after losing his entire wheat crop to untimely rains.

Gopal Singh, an uncle of Gajendra Singh, said that the man was not compensated by the state government.

"He had around 25 bighas (around 2.5 hectare) of land and grew wheat. His crop was destroyed by rains and hailstorm... So far no compensation has been given to us."

The Congress announced Rs 2 lakh as compensation to the dead man's family.

Kejriwal was told of the incident -- it wasn't clear then whether the man was alive or dead -- by some volunteers on the dais. Thinking that the man was probably alive, he said he would call on him after the rally.

In his speech, Kejriwal accused the Narendra Modi government of trying to snatch farmers' land to give it to the "super rich".

"Today farmers have realised that this is not a government of farmers, it is a government of anti-farmers," he said to loud cheers. "This is 'super amiron ki sarkar (a government of the super rich)."

Kejriwal questioned the need to enact an Ordinance to make land takeover easy.

"What is the urgency? Is there a big emergency? What is the compulsion? Is some major project stalled? Our farmers want to know."

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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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