Six de-addiction centers closed in Himachal’s Una

Una (HP), Feb 8 (PTI) Six ongoing de-addiction centers in Una district have been closed with immediate effect, officials said on Thursday.

Taking a strong action against the centers running shops in the name of de-addiction centers in Una district, the State Mental Health Authority has issued these orders.

The State Mental Health Authority has issued orders to close the de-addiction centers open in Saba Foundation Gagret, Jeevan Jot Bhanjal, Wellness Home Kotlaklan, Last Door Jalgran, Jeevan Sudhar Haroli and Jeevan Jot Tabba, an official said.

These centers are run by the people from Punjab instead of Himachal Pradesh. As per the orders issued from Shimla, the operators of these centers will no longer be able to operate them in future.

Till now 26 de-addiction centers were registered in Una district, but after the order to close six centres, the number of de-addiction centers in the district has now reduced to 20.

The decision came after operator of the de-addiction center in Bhanjal was caught for supplying ‘chitta’ (adulterated heroin) following which inspections were carried out in all the addiction centers in the district by a team headed by Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr SK Verma.

The inspection team had found that the drug de-addiction centers were not running as per the norms and the condition of the drug addicts kept there was worse than animals and there was no provision for a medical officer in these centers.

The people living in the de-addiction centers do not even have regular health check-ups and even the record of medicines given was not kept.

Verma said that the State Mental Health Authority has ordered the closure of six centers in the district. Two youths had earlier died in Haroli-Gagret de-addiction centers under suspicious conditions.