Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday raised serious questions over the “casual” efforts, being made by Punjab Government, to tackle the problem of drug addiction in the state.
“The state government is not making sincere efforts in the process of drug de-addiction and rehabilitation of the addicts. Punjab State Board for De-addiction and Rehabilitation was constituted by the government in June 2014, but nothing much has been done by the Board till now,” said AAP MlA from Sunam Aman Arora.
Arora said that as per the reply of the Health Minister regarding his question in Punjab Vidhan Sabha, since the formation of Punjab State Board for De-addiction and Rehabilitation in 2014, only four meetings of the body have been done till now.
“It shows the seriousness and efforts being made by the state government to curb the drug addiction problem in Punjab. The working of Congress government in this regard is similar to that of the previous SAD-BJP government,” he said.
Sunam MlA said that the budget allocation and expenditure for the purpose also raises question over the working of Punjab Government.
“Punjab Government, from 2013-14 to 2017-18, has allocated Rs 326.11 crores, but only Rs 161.17 crores were spent for that purpose, which is just 49 percent of the total allocated budget. More than anything, the government, in 2017-18, has allocated just Rs six crores for the purpose,” he pointed.
Arora said that since the formation of Punjab state board for de-addiction and rehabilitation, the number of government OPDs is decreasing with each passing year. The number of government OPDs in 2014 was 2,89,366 while it came down to 1,89,242 in 2015 and 1,49,409 and 1,08,767 in 2016 and 2017 respectively.
Stating that being the people’s representative, he has a duty to raise the issues of public concern, Arora asked the government to take necessary steps to curb the problem of drug abuse in state and also rehabilitate the youth who have came out of the clutches of drug.
He also urged the government to call the meeting of the Board after every three months and release proper funds for the de-addiction and rehabilitation purposes.
