Excise and Prohibition minister Jai Pratap Singh admitted that the state government does not have enough funds to counter the menace of drug addiction.
Replying to a question of Congress member Aditi Singh, the minister said that the department has a budget of Rs 31.50 lakh for prohibition and it was mostly used for publicity to make people aware about the ill effects of drugs and other addictives.
The minister also refused to give any commitment to the member whether the government would go for a comprehensive strategy to counter addiction or set up government-run deaddiction and rehabilitation centres.
“We support NGOs running de-addiction centres in different parts of the state while the Central government provides them financial assistance,” Singh said.
The Congress member said that addiction of drugs by youths in the state had gone up and the government should immediately do something. She also said that shops selling paan masala, gutka, cigarette etc near schools and colleges were promoting addiction among school children and demanded action against these shops.
Parliamentary Affairs minister Suresh Kumar Khanna too said that there was a need for a good environment for school and college going children.