Monsoon Session: Centre calls all-party meet to end Parliament logjam

August 3, 2015

New Delhi, Aug 3: Hoping to end the deadlock in Parliament, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has called for an all-party meeting on Monday after the Congress chose to skip the meet called last week.

The BJP and Congress had Sunday launched fresh attacks against each other with union minister Arun Jaitely accusing the Congress of having "obstructionist tendencies" and the main opposition blaming the prime minister`s "obduracy" for the logjam in Parliament.

The sharp attacks from both the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress party were witnessed on the eve of the all-party meet called by Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu in an effort to end the parliamentary stalemate during the ongoing Monsoon Session.

Monday`s meeting is intended to break the parliamentary deadlock of last two weeks over former IPL chief Lalit Modi issue and the Vyapam scam, which have led to repeated adjournments of the two houses since the ongoing session began on July 22.

Congress leader Anand Sharma, who had earlier said that the party wanted tangible proposition from the government ahead of the meeting, on Sunday said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government was not serious in breaking the stalemate.

Speaking in Hyderabad, Naidu hoped Monday`s all-party meet would be fruitful.

"Tomorrow (Monday), I have called an all-party meeting and hope the meeting will be fruitful and we will be able to resolve the issues and move forward," he said.

"I appeal to the Congress -- Please do not hurt the interests of the country. Let us not indulge in a blame game," Naidu said.

Congress and some other opposition parties are demanding resignations of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje over their alleged help to former IPL chief Lalit Modi and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan over the Vyapam scam.

Lalit Modi is facing investigations from the Enforcement Directorate.

Maintaining that no minister had "done anything wrong, nothing illegal or immoral", Naidu said the central government was ready to discuss any issue.

Jaitley, in a Facebook post on Sunday, held the Congress responsible for disrupting parliament and said "its obstructionist tendencies inflict an economic injury on the country".

Jaitley made a point-wise rebuttal of the Congress`s dissent note to the Rajya Sabha Select Committee on Goods and Services Tax bill.

"Since parliament is not functioning and there is no way to clarify these points before the same, I am constrained to place the above facts in public domain," the finance minister wrote in the post titled "Dissent or Disruption - The Congress Party`s Position on GST".

"Should its (Congress) obstructionist tendencies inflict an economic injury on the country," he asked.

In a press conference, Minister of State for Commerce and BJP leader Nirmala Sitharaman accused the Congress of being "confused and afraid", saying Congress president Sonia Gandhi would have to take the blame if the session was washed out.

"The position of the Congress keeps changing. They are confused and want every debate outside parliament. The confusion created by the Congress is prevailing and people of India (are) being denied a meaningful parliament session," she said.

She said the Congress was scared of the good performance witnessed during the previous parliament session (Budget session) when productivity of both the parliamentary houses was recorded above 100 percent.

Congress leader Anand Sharma later hit back at the BJP, saying the party and Jaitley should not give "patronising" sermons to the Congress "but should collectively reflect and apologise for their own conduct while in opposition".

"The unwarranted, uncharitable and provocative statement made by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and the BJP accusing the Congress of disruption makes it abundantly clear that the government is neither serious nor sincere in breaking the stalemate for parliament to function," he said.

"The blame for parliament not functioning lies squarely with the prime minister for his arrogance and obduracy," Sharma said.

He said the credit for the parliament work over the past year goes to the responsible and mature opposition.

Sharma said it is the responsibility of the Congress and the opposition parties to expose the "hypocrisy, double speak and double standard on propriety, probity and accountability".

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IndiGo offers full waiver on cancellations, reschedule requests for bookings between Dec 5 and 15

News Network

December 6,2025

With IndiGo flight disruptions impacting thousands of passengers, the airline on Saturday said that it will offer full waiver on all cancellations/reschedule requests for travel bookings between December 5, 2025 and December 15, 2025.

Earlier in the day, the civil aviation ministry had directed the airline to complete the ticket refund process for the cancelled flights by Sunday evening, as well as ensure baggage separated from the travellers are delivered in the next two days.

In a post on X, titled 'No questions asked', IndiGo wrote, "In response to recent events, all refunds for your cancellations will be processed automatically to your original mode of payment."

"We are deeply sorry for the hardships caused," it further added.

Several passengers, however, complained of not getting full refund as promised by the airline.

Netizens have shared screenchots of getting charged for airline cancellation fee and convenience fee.

"Please tell me why u have did this airline cancellation charges when u say full amount will be refunded (sic)," a user wrote sharing a screenshot of the refund page.

"Well, but you have still debited the convenience charges," wrote another.

Passengers have also raised concerns about the "cancel" option being disabled on the IndiGo app. "First enable the 'Cancel' button on your App & offer full refund on tickets cancelled by customers between the said dates," wrote a user.

A day after the country's largest airline, IndiGo, cancelled more than 1,000 flights and caused disruptions for the fifth day on Saturday, the ministry said that any delay or non-compliance in refund processing will invite immediate regulatory action.

The refund process for all cancelled or disrupted flights must be completed by 8 pm on Sunday, the ministry said in a statement.

"Airlines have also been instructed not to levy any rescheduling charges for passengers whose travel plans were affected by cancellations," it said.

On Saturday, more than 400 flights were cancelled at various airports.

IndiGo has also been instructed to set up dedicated passenger support and refund facilitation cells.

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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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