Drug de-addiction centres violating laws

PATIALA: Special committees set up by Punjab Health Department to inspect drug de-addiction centres have found that most such facilities in Patiala district are running in violation of norms.
Only two centres here have licence to operate. Many others are being run illegally in the district.
The department had constituted committees to check facilities following directions from the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
Health department officials said there were around 50 de-addiction centres in Patiala district including those in Nabha, Samana, Rajpura, Devigarh and Sanaur, and majority of those did not even have basic facilities.
"We got only eight applications for licenses from these centres and conducted thorough investigation. During that only two centres were found suitable. We have recommended the names of these two for licences," said deputy medical commissioner (DMC) Dr Charnjit Singh.
The committee in Patiala included the DMC, Nabha SDM Tejinder Dhaliwal, district social security officer Varinder Pal Mann and three others.
Members conducted investigations and repeatedly visited all eight centers for three days at various times to assess facilities.
There are many illegal centres operating in the city, but no action has been taken against them.
"I paid Rs 50,000 to a private centre’s owner. But when I reached there, it had no facilities. Now, I have got admitted in a government-run centre and the private centre’s owner has refused to return my money," said a local resident who is trying to fight drug addiction.
Owners of three such centres refused to comment on the issue of illegality. One of them said they would keep operating their centres till health department stopped them.
"We have not received any complaints about illegal centres and will take action if that happens," said the DMC.