Govt wants drug rehab centres in PPP mode

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 23

The Punjab Government has asked all Deputy Commissioners to find NGOs or corporate houses willing to run government-owned drug rehabilitation centres, and start skill development activities there. The smooth functioning of the centres has become government’s priority. There are 22 drug rehabilitation centres — two in Tarn Taran and one each in other districts. Pathankot does not have a rehab centre.

Last week, the Cabinet had announced to set up a Special Task Force for dealing with the drug menace in the state. Earlier this week, during a meeting with DCs, the Chief Minister said the rehab centres could be run under the private-public partnership (PPP).

Sources said the Chief Minister asked about the occupancy rate in government-run rehab centres. He was surprised when told that the average occupancy was just 20 per cent. After the SAD-BJP alliance got a drubbing in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in Punjab, the-then government decided to open drug de-addiction and rehabilitation centres across the state. About Rs 100 crore was spent on the construction of the centres.

The drug de-addiction centres are functioning smoothly, but the rehab centres have failed to attract addicts treated in the de-addiction centres. All centres have 50 beds each; the lowest occupancy rate is three and the highest, 22.

Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Vini Mahajan confirmed that the Chief Minister had asked the DCs to find NGOs or corporates who would like to run the rehab centres. “The CM was informed about an NGO running a rehab centre in Amritsar and skill training provided there. The successful test run in Amritsar has got the CM thinking about the PPP mode for the centres,” she said.