Chhattisgarh Congress chief killed to stop him from becoming CM: Rahul Gandhi

November 8, 2013

Rajnandgaon/Chhattisgarh, Nov 8: Making a strong emotional pitch over the Maoist ambush on Congress leaders in May, Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that former PCC chief Nand Kumar Patel was killed to stop him from becoming the chief minister and to silence the voice of the poor and the tribals here.

Slamming the Raman Singh government over the May 25 dastardly Maoist attack in Bastar which had wiped out the entire senior Congress leadership of the state, Gandhi said this was "not an attack on Congress party but on the people" and asked voters not to forget the event and bring Congress to power in the state.

Hitting out at BJP, Gandhi said that they are a "world champion of corruption" and believe in the empowerment of only a few individuals and not the people, which is the agenda of Congress.

Addressing an election gathering in chief minister Raman Singh's constituency, the Congress vice president said that it was not Patel but the people of the region who were silenced to death on that fateful day.

"The violence, the attack that happened then was not targeted at Congress party alone. This was an assault on the voice of these people, the women here," he told the gathering comprising a large number of tribals.

Frequently referring to the slain former state Congress chief Patel, he said, "Nand Kumar Patel was going to become the chief minister of Chhattisgarh. Nobody could have stopped him. There was no way to stop him. There was only one way and that he was eliminated.

"The voice of the poor and the tribal echoed in his heart and he was killed. It was not he, but you who were killed that day. Don't forget this..They belong to you and they were snatched from you," Gandhi said.

Attacking the state government, the Congress leader rued, "Our entire leadership was liquidated, but they (state government) say they have no fault. Our entire leadership was finished but they say it was not their fault...."

On May 25, Naxals attacked a convoy of Congress leaders in Jagdalpur district, killing the party's senior leader Mahendra Karma and injuring former union minister V C Shukla. Shukla later died in a hospital.

The bodies of PCC chief Nand Kumar Patel and his son were later found in the forests. A former Congress MLA Udya Mudaliyar was also shot dead by the Maoists who attacked the convoy when they were returning from a "Parivartan" rally.

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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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