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."
Police said that with the arrest of the duo, identified as Samual Uzochukwu Nnowaruom and Joseph Ebekue, both from Nigeria, the entire backbone of the drug peddling syndicate has been broken in Dwarka area.
The toll was confirmed to the media by Rajkot Range Inspector General of Police Ashok Yadav. However, the toll according to the Minister of State for Home Harsh Sanghavi is 132, while two persons remain unaccounted for.
Addressing to a gathering here, Mann said it is crystal clear that the people of Gujarat have made up their mind to give mandate in favour of AAP by ousting the BJP from the power. He said the Opposition is trying to malign AAP by dubbing it 'B' team of others but AAP is party of Gujarat's people and 130 crore of Indians.
Mining trader Mehal Singh (70) was shot dead outside his house on October 13. The operation was jointly carried out by the Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF), Counter Intelligence (CI) Punjab, the District Police of Udham Singh Nagar Uttarakhand, the Special Cell Delhi and the District Police of Mohali.
The deceased identified as Sunita Mittal was travelling by an e-rickshaw. Her grandson and daughter-in-law were also with her. She was on her way to Rohini sector 9. In the Prashant Vihar area two persons who were riding on a scooty attacked her in a bid to snatch her bag. The woman raised an alarm.
During the physical search, both the women were detected with something wrapped below their knees in a bandage-like arrangement, arousing suspicions. On further examination, it was found that the duo had wrapped 24 carat pure gold in wax form around their legs, concealed with an adhesive bandage-like material underneath their jeans.
