Punjab's private drug rehab centres facing closure
Darpan News Desk IANS, 09 Feb, 2023 12:58 PM
Chandigarh, Feb 9 (IANS) The Punjab Drug Rehabilitation Centres Union (PDRCU) on Thursday sought intervention of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to review a policy of the previous Congress government that has brought such centres being run in the private sector to the verge of closure.
Members of the special committee set up by the PDRCU said they have given many representations to officials of the Health Department to revoke the policy.
Kunal Lakhanpal, a member of the committee, said: "In 2020 the then Congress government mandated that every rehab centre should have a psychiatrist, an MBBS doctor and a nurse on its payroll. It is illogical as no medicine is to be given at these centres. We admit people after detoxification. Such people are provided counselling. The idea is to make them mentally strong so that they don't fall prey to drugs again."
Another member said Angad Singh said that the policy lead to high operating costs, which "we cannot meet given the fact that we run small centres and the fee charged from patients is also bare minimum as the affected families, by and large, are poor".
Under the policy, some private rehab centres have already been served with closure notices. Some have even closed. There are cases where rehab centres have shifted from Punjab and set up bases in neighbouring states.
Another committee member Sanjeev Sharma said: "In case the policy is enforced in its current form, 74 private rehab centres will be shut down."
During the meeting, the police officers briefed the Chief Minister about the incident. Dera Sacha Sauda follower, Pradeep Singh, was shot dead by five unidentified men in Punjab's Kotkapura town on Thursday.
There was panic in several areas and people stayed out of their homes for nearly two hours after the tremors were felt. The tremors lasted for nearly 10 seconds and were reported from several parts of the state.
Delhi Police have busted a fake call centre in Delhi's Uttam Nagar which scammed more than 1700 people on the pretext of providing them loans and arrested 12 people in this connection, an official said on Wednesday. Police said that the fake call centre was disguised as a medicine supply store.
In the first case, Customs officials in Chennai said on Wednesday that they have arrested two persons for smuggling gold worth Rs 1.33 crore. Both the passengers, who came to Chennai from Muscat, were held on Tuesday.
A bench of Justices M.R. Shah and Sudhanshu Dhulia said to enhance the fee unilaterally would be contrary to the objects and purpose of Andhra Pradesh Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admissions and Prohibition of Capitation Fee) Act, 1983 as well as the Rules, 2006 and the decision of this court in the case of P.A. Inamdar.
The study -- A deep insight into state-level aerosol pollution in India -- by researchers Abhijit Chatterjee Associate Professor and his PhD scholar Monami Dutta from Bose Institute, Kolkata, provides a national scenario of aerosol pollution with the long-term (2005-2019) trend, source apportionment, and future scenario (2023) for various Indian states.
