The heads of private de-addiction centres have announced to assist Punjab government’s drug de-addiction drive. During a meeting held under the chairmanship of MP Ravneet Singh Bittu at Circuit House, here today, the heads of private de-addiction centres have announced free OPD facility, tests and counselling for the drug addicts at their centres. Doctors and psychiatrists from Health Department also attended this meeting.Today’s meeting was organised with the special initiative of MP Ravneet Singh Bittu.It is pertinent to mention that there are a total of 28 drug de-addiction centres running in the district, out of which five are run by government and 23 are privately run. Today’s meeting was attended by either head of private de-addiction centres or psychiatrists.MP Ravneet Singh Bittu appealed to all the doctors that they should all contribute as the Punjab government has already broken the drug supply line in the state and now, all drug addicts want to shun drugs and leave healthy life. He also appealed that all drug addicts should be brought to drug de-addiction centres by politicians as well as the administration for treatment. He said that if the drug addicts get good treatment at these centres, then no one can stop our state to become drug free.He said that due to shortage of drug de-addiction centres as well as psychiatrists with the state government, the privately run drug de-addiction centres should assist the Administration and Punjab government for this noble cause.
He said that the vacant “Sarai” at Civil Hospital, here, would be converted into a drug de-addiction centre by Saturday and 40 patients can be treated there. He said that soon, services of retired psychiatrists would also be taken by the health department for this purpose.The heads of private drug de-addiction centres as well as the psychiatrists assured the MP that they would not only provide free OPD, tests and counselling to the drug addicts but are also willing to assist the health department in the field as well. During the meeting, it was also decided that NGOs would provide free medicines to the needy patients. It was also clarified that the ban on selling syringes without prescription has also been revoked.The MP also stated that it has been observed that several patients coming for treatment of drug addiction are suffering from AIDS, and other such diseases, for which the treatment is totally free of cost at Government Hospitals. He said that if any person comes to know about such patients, then they should be referred to the government hospitals.The meeting was also attended by MLA Sanjay Talwar, Mayor Balkar Singh Sandhu, MC councillor Mamta Ashu, Civil Surgeon Dr Parvinderpal Singh Sidhu, DCC (Rural) President Gurdev Singh Lapran, Dr Pammi Singh, Dr Rajiv Gupta Manas Hospital, Dr AK Kala Kochar Market, Dr Jagjot Singh Guru Nanak Hospital Raqba, Dr Amarpreet Singh Deol Mullanpur, Dr Pankaj, Dr Rupesh, Dr Gurpartap Singh Sandhu Barewal Road, Dr Naveen KK Hospital, Dr Rajinder Kumar Model Town Extension, doctors from DMC, besides several others.