Lokayukta to leave probe to govt

June 29, 2015

Bengaluru, Jun 28: Lokayukta Justice Y Bhaskar Rao on Sunday decided to request the State government to appoint an independent agency to probe the allegation of demand for bribe from Bengaluru Urban Zilla Panchayat executive engineer Krishnamurthy by some people at the Lokayukta office.

Justice Rao had on Friday entrusted the investigation to Bengaluru City’s Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) M Chandrashekar, who also heads the CCB. However, Chandrashekar on Saturday wrote to the Lokayukta to reconsider the decision citing some reasons.

Subsequently, Justice Rao has decided to request the State government to appoint any independent agency to probe the matter, an official release from the Lokayukta said.

The decision comes following opposition to a CCB probe from civil society and various quarters. Upa Lokayukta Subhash B Adi had also said that only a CBI probe was appropriate.

Though the release from the Lokayukta did not mention the reasons cited by Chandrashekar, it is said that the IPS officer decided not to take up the probe to ensure that there is no conflict of interest.

According to sources, in 2010, the Lokayukta police had arrested Chandrashekar’s father-in-law, who was then special deputy commissioner in Bengaluru, on charges of accepting a bribe of Rs 50,000 for land conversion.

The Lokayukta police are yet to file a charge sheet in the case. Thus, to avoid any conflict of interest, Chandrashekar decided not to probe the case, sources added.

The Lokayukta had ordered a probe by the CCB following a report by Sonia Narang, Superintendent of Police (City), Lokayukta. The report stated that the staff had demanded Rs 1 crore from the executive engineer inside a hall right next to the chamber of the Lokayukta and threatened to raid him if he fails to pay the money.

The incident of demand for bribe took place on the second floor of the Lokayukta office on May 5. Narang’s report states that the executive engineer had received messages on his mobile number asking him to call the sender of the message.

“When he called up that number, a person, who identified himself as Krishna Rao, told him that Joint Commissioner, Lokayukta, has asked him to come to the Lokayukta office,” said the report.

“When he asked about the reason, he was told that there were complaints against him. He asked (executive engineer) to come to the Lokayukta office on May 5, 2015,” it added.

Narang, in her report, has stated that the matter needed to be thoroughly investigated into since the mobile numbers and other details were available.

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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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