With a view to wean away inmates from drug-addiction and ensure their timely and proper treatment, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Saturday approved Rs 2.50 crore to strengthen drug de-addiction centres (DDCs) set up in eight central jails across the State.
Badal, presiding over a high-level meeting with the senior officials of police, jail and health department to modernise the existing DDCs in all central prisons in the State, said that the entire exercise to put in place a mechanism to curb the menace of drug-addiction amongst the inmates must be completed within three months.
Appreciating the suggestions put forth by Dr Ajit Awasthi, professor and head of psychiatry department, PGIMER Chandigarh for bringing reforms in the health set up in jails, Badal asked the officers to implement all his recommendations in right earnest so as to ensure complete revamp of the existing DDCs.
Meanwhile, ADGP Jails, RP Meena apprised the Chief Minister that as many as 5,682 inmates had been treated in the DDCs and 336 were under treatment. Badal also directed the senior officers of the Jail Department and Director General of Police (DGP) to ensure strict vigil round-the-clock to check drug trafficking in the jails.
DGP Sumedh Singh Saini assured the Chief Minister that he would deploy two Inspector Generals (IGs) to supervise the jail security besides positioning 700-800 police personnel around the jails as ‘cordon cover’ within a month to check the infiltration of drugs into the jails by the visitors coming to jails for meeting inmates.
He also assured the Chief Minister that adequate equipment such as door frame metal detectors, head held metal detectors and walkie-talkie sets as demanded by the Jail Department would be provided by the Police department at the earliest to ensure proper frisking of the people and staff of the jails.