The previous SAD-BJP led Punjab Government was not hooked to the idea of rehabilitating its drug addict youth, despite the hype it created. Most of the de-addiction and rehabilitation centres were continued to function without licence or lacking staff and other essential equipment.
The drugs have emerged as the major issue in the State with almost all parties targeting the previous regime over the same in the recent Assembly polls. SAD-BJP Government had declared a war against drugs claiming to adopt a comprehensive approach to tackle the same.
Contrarily, the revelations made by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India in its latest reports listed out slew of serious shortcomings in the working of drug de-addiction and rehab centres across the State.
CAG pointed that the functioning of de-addiction centres and the rehabilitative efforts of the state government was hampered by the failure to avail central assistance of Rs 0.36 crore due to non-submission of utilisation certificates and shortages of manpower ranging between 25 and 200 percent in test-checked districts of Amritsar, Bathinda, Faridkot, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, among others.
It pointed that 35 drug-deaddiction and rehabilitation centers, out of total 57, were functioning without licenses while five drug de-addiction and rehabilitation centres, set up at a cost of Rs 6.93 crore, were not functional for want of staff and other essential equipment.
Only 23 and 28 percent of detoxified addicts were admitted to rehab centres of test-checked districts, it revealed adding that there was shortage of staff, ranging between 25 and 100 percent.
lastly, non-formation of state level committee and not undertaking prescribed activities by district societies indicated weak monitoring mechanism.
As per Rule 7 of the Punjab Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Counselling and Rehabilitation Centre Rules, 2011, no centre shall be allowed to operate without obtaining licence from the licensing authority – director, health and family welfare; and director, social security, women and child development.
Of these 35 centres, three are model drug-de addiction centres, 18 drug-de addiction centres and 14 rehabilitation centres, functioning in contravention of the rules. The department attributed the reasons for non-issue of licences to non-receipt of inspection reports from civil surgeons and non-receipt of applications.
Maintaining that the reply was not tenable, CAG pointed that eight functional MDDCs, DDCs and RCs, which had applied for licences between September 2012 and April 2016, were not issued licences even after delay ranging between five months to four years.
Another 27 de-addiction and rehabilitation centres, which were functional between January 2011 and June 2016, had not applied for licences.
Also, five de-addiction and rehab centres which were set up in 2014 and 2015 at a cost of Rs 6.93 crore were not functional due to non-availability of psychiatrists, medical officers and other staff, besides essential equipment.
While the drug addicts were deprived of the benefits of these centres, the department said that it conducted walk-in interviews every two months for recruitment of psychiatrists which was under process.
The report said test-check of records in selected districts showed that against 1.75-lakh drug addiction patients registered in OPD, only 11,186 were taken to indoor patients department which ranged between one percent and 19 percent in eight model drug de-addiction centres and drug de-addiction centres during 2013-16.
The percentage of unutilised bed capacity in these centres ranged from 17 to 60 during the same period.
The Congress government, which has promised to eliminate drugs within four weeks, has set up a Special Task Force under ADGP Harpreet Sandhu and given free hand to act against anyone in the drug trade, irrespective of status, and rank.
Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had, only a day before, also made it clear that he wants to catch only the big fish in the drug pond.
