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."
Addressing a press conference here to highlight the letter written by Majithia's wife and Majitha legislator Ganieve Kaur Majithia to the DGP along with a copy to chief minister Bhagwant Mann, senior SAD leaders Maheshinder Singh Grewal and Daljit Singh Cheema demanded the immediate removal of Sidhu from the additional charge of the ADGP, Prisons, besides taking other necessary action in the case.
The Akal Takht Jathedar and Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) officials honoured the families of those who were killed during 'Operation Bluestar'. There was heavy barricading by police around all entry points to the Golden Temple.
According to the official, information was received on June 3 that two persons carrying a country-made pistol would come in a car at Jamia Nagar to meet their common friend.
Davinder Singh, aka Kala, was arrested on Sunday from Haryana's Fatehabad town. Two suspects involved in the killing -- Keshav and Charanjeet -- had stayed with him, police officials said.
What was the worst is that he went to admit his wife at a local hospital on Monday morning after his brutal attack but concealed the severed body part at his residence to make sure that the doctors are unable to reattach it.
Congress leader and former Indian cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu, who is undergoing a one-year jail sentence, was on Monday admitted in heptology ward of the PGIMER in Chandigarh due to liver-related problems, a statement said.
