In an attempt to help drug addicts return to normal life, the Punjab Government will set up two drug de-addiction centres in the State by the end of this year. The well-equipped 50-bed centres, with the state-of-art facilities, will be established in Jalandhar and Bathinda by December 31 this year.
The decision was taken by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal while presiding over a meeting of the Punjab State Cancer and Drug Addiction (CADA) Treatment Infrastructure Board. At the meeting, it was also decided that another two 50-bed drug de-addiction centres will be constructed at Patiala and Baba Farid University campus soon. The State Government will also set up 22 special rehabilitation centres, one each in every district, where the patients would be admitted after detoxification in Drug De-Addiction Centres (DDCs).
Also, the Chief Minister asked the Health Department to work out a strategy to provide medicines to the eight DDCs in jails of Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Kapurthala, ludhiana, Patiala, Bathinda, Faridkot and Ferozepur. At present, the jail authorities purchase the drug directly.In addition, Badal asked the Health Department to chalk out a strategy for identifying the regularly vacant beds in government hospitals so that they could be aptly utilized for drug addiction centers by restructuring them.
Already, the Punjab Health Systems Corporation (PHSC) has constructed 10 bedded drug de-addiction centers with a total outlay of Rs27 crore at Phagwara, Jagroan, Batala, Balachaur, Dasuya, Sri Anandpur Sahib, Rajpura, Barnala, Abohar, Patti, Malerkotla, Khanna, Narot Jaimal Singh, Hoshiarpur, Saila Khurd, Gurdaspur, Pathankot, Barnala, Sangrur, ludhiana, Fatehgarh Sahib, Fazilka and Ropar.
Out of these, 18 drug de-addiction centers were fully functional and remaining six would be made operational soon.likewise, three more drug de-addiction centers would be constructed soon at Nurmahal, Samrala and Badal at a cost of Rs3 crore.Emphasizing the need to strengthen cancer treatment hospital network for eradication of Cancer, Badal also approved Rs30.50 crore for Cancer Treatment Block in Faridkot Medical College, besides Rs15 crore as its annual maintenance charges for the upcoming Cancer treatment center at Bathinda being constructed at a cost of Rs40 crore, in addition to the already existing strong network of the Cancer treatment in the State.
It was also informed in the meeting that for the TMC Cancer Radiation Therapy Centre at Sangrur Civil hospital, the entire infrastructure was being provided by the state government whereas all equipments would be installed by the TMC.Chief Minister also asked the authorities to launch a vigorous mass awareness campaign to sensitize the youth in order to wean them away from drug addiction by engaging the services of experts and eminent psychiatrists to educate the drug addicts about the ill effects of drug addiction.
Badal also laid stress on the need to recruit more psychiatrists as well as the psycho therapy counsellors and psycho social workers for effective rehabilitation plan of the drug addicts.For the strengthening of Human Resource in this sector, the Chief Minister asked the Health and Medical Education departments to start new courses besides providing training to the existing staff for the success of this mission.