CHANDIGARH: Terming the allegation of Majithia as baseless and fallacious, the Health Minister Mr. Balbir Singh Sidhu said that he will file the defamation suit against Bikram Singh for leveling the false allegations against him in the holy Legislative Assembly. He said that everyone knows about the connection of Bikram Singh, who remained the brand ambassador of Chitta for 10 years in Punjab, with Kingpin of Drug Mafia Jagdish Bhola, so he (Bikram Singh) has to introspect himself before leveling the factless allegations against the Cabinet Ministers of Congress Government. He said that he will also file the defamation case against SAD’s counselors of Mohali who are dancing on the tune of Majithia and trying to malign his image.
Mr. Balbir Singh Sidhu clarified that Private De-Addiction Centres (PDAC) are authorized for directly purchasing the medicines from pharmaceutical companies so that there is no role of health department in this process. Even difference in online and offline record of medicines is noticed by the Health department itself, not by any other agency. After that to ensure the 100 percent data entry into the online portal, show-cause notices have been issued to PDACs. He said that being a lawmaker, my foremost responsibility is to deliver justice to all sectors which are directly or indirectly come under the domain of health department.
The Minister said he directed the Principal Secretary Mr. Anurag Aggarwal that to conduct the thorough audit of all PDACs whether they were getting show cause notices or not as their association pointed out that health department is using pick & choose policy while issuing the notices. He asked to make it sure that treatment of more than 2.5 lac patients not to be affected, who are registered in these centres, while conducting the audit. He also instructed that the identity of patients not to be revealed at any cost as it is matter of secrecy under SOPs. He said that every single patient is important under de-addiction program and lacs of youth are willingly coming to de-addiction centres after persistent efforts made by the Punjab Government in 3 years.
The Minister said that due to social stigma, parents mostly prefer the private centres for the treatment of their children to hide their identity. He said that with the help of parents, the Punjab Government is going to run the "Bring Back Dropout Patients Campaign" for providing complete treatment by mid of March. He said that besides 2.5 lac patients registered in private de-addiction centres, around 1, 15, 457 patients in OOAT clinics and 46, 472 patients in Government de-addiction centres are registered for treatment.
Lashing out the SAD, he further said that previous government had totally failed to break the supply line of illegal drugs & opioid and to provide treatment in Punjab but now they are trying to divert the attention of people by politicizing the issue.
The Cabinet Minister stated that the to keep the close watch on the functioning of these Government and Private centres, Punjab Government had made it compulsory for the PDACs to submit the record of purchasing and dispensing of psychotropic medicines online as well as manually to the FDA and district authority. He said that the main objective of this SOP is to ensure that the treatment of OPIOID dependence is life saving and is used for rebuilding the lives of the patients suffering from addiction. He said that every new patient reporting to private de-addiction centre needs to be registered on the central portal and a UID number is assigned to him/her. Their Aadhar or mobile number has been used to link with their UID number.
The Health Minister said that he is personally monitoring the matter and after analyzing the online and offline record of the de-addiction centres, legal action will definitely be taken where ever necessary under law.