Chandigarh: Punjab Health and Family Welfare Minister Balbir Singh on Tuesday during a consultative meeting with NGOs unveiled a five-pillar action plan to combat drug abuse.
Declaring an end to Punjab’s decades-old “political-police-criminal nexus”, Singh asserted: “The missing piece — political will — is now in place. With CM Bhagwant Singh Mann’s leadership and your grassroots power, we will create a ‘Rangla Punjab’.”
Over 30 NGOs including Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Society for the Promotion of Youth & Masses (SPYM), Ananya Birla Foundation, Kalgidhar Trust Baru Sahib, Hans Foundation, Sun Foundation, etc. from across the country and experts from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) New Delhi, PGI Chandigarh, Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) participated in the meeting, which took place at Punjab Bhawan here. Emphasising the government’s unwavering commitment to breaking the supply-demand cycle of drugs while ensuring compassionate rehabilitation for affected individuals, the Health Minister stressed the need to prevent the upcoming generation — kids and students — from falling prey to the drug menace while focusing on ensuring treatment for those who are already addicted.
Terming treatment of drug addicts as a challenging part, Singh said that to cope up with this, doctors will put the drug addict on oral drugs. “After de-addiction treatment, we will move the patient to a rehabilitation centre and provide him skill development course to bring him into the mainstream,” he said, adding that they will also rope in the employment generation department to provide the patient a good job to avert the chances of relapse.