Modi should apologise, hope he learns lesson: Oppn on Rawat return

May 11, 2016

New Delhi, May 11: With Harish Rawat set to be reinstated as Uttarakhand Chief Minister, Opposition parties today demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi apologise to Parliament with the Congress hoping he "learns his lesson".

As the Congress, AAP and other opposition parties hailed the return of Rawat, asserting that democracy has won, the CPI(M) said the "anti-constitutional conspiracy" hatched by the BJP to topple the state government has received a "big setback".

The BJP on its part sought to fend off the attack on the party after the Supreme Court gave its nod for Rawat's return, claiming that the Congress has "bought" majority in the state but it has lost "Uttarakhand people's majority".

"They (BJP) did their worst. We did our best. Democracy won in Uttarakhand!. Hope Modiji learns his lesson--people of this country and the institutions built by our founding fathers will not tolerate the murder of democracy!," Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi said in a series of tweets.

"Prime Minister should apologize in Parliament and sack the Minister who advised him to impose President's Rule in Uttarakhand," Congress leader Kapil Sibal told reporters.
Delhi Chief Minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal took to Twitter to hit out at the Modi government.

"Modi Govt shud apologise to the nation for acting in unconstitutional and undemocratic manner in Uttarakhand," Kejriwal tweeted.

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) said the reinstatement of Rawat is a big setback for the BJP.

"This is a big setback to the anti-Constitutional conspiracy hatched by the BJP of trying to topple the government in the state and impose its rule there.

"The BJP should learn that its resort to such methods at subterfuge to remove democratically elected state governments headed by opposition parties will not succeed," the party said in a statement.

BJP said that Congress has imposed President's rule in the country on more than 100 occasions and alleged they have "bought" the majority in Uttarakhand but the party has lost the majority of the people of the state.

"Congress has put President's rule in the country for more than 100 times. It (Uttarakhand episode) was Congress's internal strife. There was revolt among the Congress MLAs due to the anti-people policy of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

"The MLAs revolted against Harish Rawat as he was involved in corruption," BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma alleged, adding," That is why their government fell and President's rule was imposed in the state. Congress has bought majority, they did not get majority. But Congress has lost Uttarakhand people's majority."

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He keeps doing mistakes....he became PM by mistake...by mistake he sacked democratically elected government....by mistake he compared Kerala to Somalia...what a tragedy....

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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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