Govt to hire rehabilitated drug addicts as counsellors at OOATs

HEALTH DEPT HAS ASKED CIVIL SURGEONS TO SUBMIT NAMES OF RECOVERED DRUG ADDICTS

- Karam Prakash

PATIALA: A month after a doctor was arrested for alleged misappropriation of drugs at his private de-addiction centres, Punjab health department has formed an eight-member state-level committee to conduct a departmental inquiry into the matter.

The committee, headed by director, health and family welfare, will submit its report within three months.

Dr Amit Bansal, a resident of Chandigarh, who was running 22 private de-addiction centres across Punjab, was arrested in the first week of January after a vigilance probe found that drugs meant for inmates at rehabilitation centres were being misappropriated sold in the black market to persons not enrolled in de-addiction programmes.

Following his arrest, the state health department had suspended licences of all his centres on January 13.

The department has sought records from 16 districts where his centres were operational.

Drug inspectors of these 16 districts have been directed to physically check the stock of buprenorphine naloxone and seal it. They have also been told to send drug samples to the state lab for testing.