Rehab centres for drug addicts to start within 3 months: Badal

State govt is planning to end the drug menace from the state and also ensure rehabilitation of drug-addicts

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said that rehabilitation centres for drug de-addiction in 22 districts of the state will be made operational within three months.

The Chief Minister asked the National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) to complete and hand over the fully furnished buildings of these centres, as per the approved site plan, to the Health department within three months.

Badal, while presiding over a meeting with senior officers of the state here, also approved the sites of three acres each for the construction of these centres across the state.

The sites were identified jointly by the inspection team comprising senior officers of Health department and NBCC under the guidance of concerned Deputy Commissioners.

With these centres, the state government is planning to end the drug menace from the state and also ensure rehabilitation of drug-addicts, an official release said here.

The Chief Minister asked the Principal Secretary Health to device modalities for the recruitment of doctors for the new rehabilitation centres besides deputing them in the prisons to treat the drug-addicts.

"In the meantime, till the process of regular appointment of these doctors was completed, he directed the Principal Secretary Health to spare 44 doctors from the Punjab Civil Medical Services (PCMS) cadre for postings in these Rehabilitation Centers," the release said.

Two doctors each will be posted in the 22 districts.