Voting begins in RK Nagar amid tight security

Agencies

December 21, 2017

Chennai, Dec 21: Voting for the high stakes bypoll in RK Nagar Assembly constituency, which fell vacant after the death of late AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa, began amid tight security here today, with key contenders being AIADMK, the main Opposition DMK and sidelined AIADMK leader T T V Dhinakaran.

Polling began at 8 AM, with people arriving to exercise their franchise across booths in North Chennai, braving the misty conditions. DMK candidate N Marudhu Ganesh was among the early voters. It is seen as an acid test for the ruling AIADMK, as it is the first election since the death of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa. Though as many as 59 candidates are in the fray, the bypoll is mainly seen as a fight between the ruling AIADMK, its rival faction led by Dhinakaran and DMK. While veteran ruling party leader and former MLA E Madhusudanan is the AIADMK nominee, Dhinakaran is contesting as an independent for the first time. The Dhinakaran camp is facing flak for the release of a video clip yesterday, purportedly featuring late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in a hospital bed. P Vetrivel, a Dhinakaran loyalist released the video, an act denounced by AIADMK, DMK and others.

The DMK candidate Marudhu Ganesh, seen as a dark horse, is a grassroots level party functionary. DMK also has the support of its allies Congress, IUML, MMK and an array of friendly parties, including the Left, MDMK and VCK.

The Delhi High Court yesterday declined to pass any order directing the Election Commission to put on hold the election in RK Nagar.

Justice Indermeet Kaur also declined to pass any order directing a CBI probe into complaints and allegations of widespread corrupt practices in connection with the bypoll.

R K Nagar has an electorate of 2,28,234, comprising 1,10,903 men, 1,17,232 women and 99 transgenders.

Elaborate security arrangements are in place with about 2,000 State police personnel, 15 companies of Central Armed Police Forces, including CRPF deployed across 256 polling stations.

The polling process is being monitored by nine observers, considered the highest for a single assembly constituency. This includes general, special, police and expenditure officials.

Ninety six flying squad teams, 21 Static Surveillance Teams and 20 Video Surveillance Teams have been deployed by election authorities. A total of 45 check points in and around the constituency are also manned by poll officials.

The run up to the poll saw political parties and candidates holding as many as 152 public meetings and taking out 605 processions, campaigning ended on December 19.

Till yesterday and starting from November 24, a total of Rs 30,79,382 unaccounted cash was seized and 124 FIRs filed for election violations/offences.

Fifteen persons were remanded to judicial custody, 122 taken into preventive custody and 83 vehicles seized for violations.

Counting of votes will be taken up on December 24 and the results are expected to be out by afternoon that day.

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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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