Minister for audit of private rehab centres

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 1

The controversy over de-addiction drug buprenorphine has taken a new twist as Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu has announced to file a defamation case against Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia.

Sidhu said he would sue the SAD leader for levelling baseless allegations against him in the Assembly. He said he would also file a defamation case against SAD’s Mohali councillors, “who too are trying to malign” his image.

Lashing out at the SAD, he said the previous government had failed to break the supply line of illegal drugs and of opioid, besides providing treatment to addicts, but they were now trying to divert the attention of people by politicising the issue.

He clarified that private de-addiction centres were authorised to purchase medicines from companies so that there was no role of the Health Department in this process.

Even difference in online and offline record of medicines was noticed by the department itself, not by any other agency. Later, to ensure 100 per cent data entry into the online portal, show-cause notices had been issued to centres, he claimed.

The minister said he directed Principal Secretary Anurag Aggarwal to conduct an audit of all de-addiction centres. He said the government was going to run a “Bring Back Dropout Patients Campaign” for providing complete treatment to addicts.