Chandigarh June 28:
Punjab Health and Family Welfare Minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla today said de-addiction centres would be functioning in each civil hospital of all districts in the state by the end of this year.
She said a proposal to establish 20 ten-bedded drug dependence treatment centre in all district civil hospitals of the state was being sent to the Planning Board for inclusion in the annual plan 2010-11.
The Minister said, ''we reaffirm our commitment towards fighting this scourge collectively through parttaking in different activities in combating the drug abuse manner.'' There were three de-addiction centres in state medical colleges at Patiala, Amritsar and Faridkot and seven government de-addiction centre were functional at district hospitals at Tarn Taran , Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Bathinda, Faridkot, Mukatsar and Hoshiarpur.
Prof Chawla said 15,113 patients were given de-addiction treatment in OPD and 2,421 patients were admitted for de-addiction in 2009 in government de-addiction centers.