Dope test fee: Health Dept earns Rs 1.8 cr in 20 months

Sameer Singh

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, September 25

The decision to make the dope test mandatory for renewal or issuance of arms licence has proved to be a boon for the district Health Department as it has managed to generate hefty revenue from the fee being charged for the same.

According to the record available with the Health Department, as many as 11,941 applications were received for the dope test in the past over 20 months. The department has managed to earn Rs1.80 crore from the fee being charged for the dope test. As compared to the last year, there has been a sizeable increase in the number of arms licence applicants this year.

Notably, it was made mandatory to undergo the dope test from January 25, 2018, to get the arms licence. Till March this year, the department had earned over Rs1 crore from the fee of the dope test. For an applicant, the fee is Rs1,500. Till December 2018, the department had collected Rs73 lakh.

A lab technician at the Civil Hospital said there was not much decline in the number of arms licence applicants undergoing the dope test at the hospital. He said sometimes 40 to 50 applicants turn up on a single day while there are days when only eight to 10 applicants undergo the dope tests. He said on some occasions, dope test applications surpass even the 800 mark on a monthly basis. To keep a check on adulteration in samples, the Health Department introduced urine adulteration test stripes recently.

Reportedly, the fee of the dope tests was Rs500. In February, it was increased to Rs800. Later, on the directions of the Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, the fee was again increased to Rs1,500 on April 19, 2018. The department had also increased the number of intoxicants for which the applicants will be screened from the existing five to 10. From April 19, 2018, the applicants were screened for morphine, codeine, D propoxy phene, benzodiazepines, 9-tetra hydro cannabinol (THC), barbiturates, cocaine, amphetamines, buprenorphine and tramadol.

Dr Satish Goyal, Senior Medical Officer, Civil Hospital, said, “Earlier, the dope test fee was less. But after an increase, the revenue collection has also surged correspondingly. In the past two years, funding from NHM has decreased significantly. We cannot think of putting this money to improve medical infrastructure as we have to streamline functioning of the government hospital.”