2 already operating in Jammu, 2 more get funds
Irfan Tramboo
Srinagar, Aug 18: Under the Government’s Drug De-Addiction Policy that was adopted 2 years ago, J&K is soon going to have at least 15 Addiction Treatment Facilities (ATF) with around 6 in Valley districts completing the recruitment of the staff while 3 more get further clearance to operate.
As per the officials, initially, there was a plan of setting up 5 Integrated Drug De-Addiction facilities in the Government Medical Colleges (GMCs) across the Union Territory after the Drug De-Addiction Policy was adopted in January 2019. However, the plan witnessed a bit of change.
They said that it came to the fore that the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment provides funds for the establishment of such facilities and for that at least 15 projects aimed at setting up of the Addiction Treatment Facilities were submitted to the Ministry, out of which 6 such facilities in Budgam, Anantnag, Pulwama, Kulgam, Bandipora and Shopian districts are already done with the recruitment of the staff and shall start operating soon.
Further, it has been learned that the Health & Medical Education Department has been given clearance for establishing 3 more Addiction Treatment Facilities in the Union Territory, one each in SKIMS, Bemina, GMC Kathua and GMC Baramulla.
“The establishment of these facilities have been cleared while a few more which are considerably bigger projects are lying pending and shall be cleared soon,” the officials said.
Officials in the know-how of the developments said that in Jammu, 2 such facilities are already functioning while as 2 more have already received the required funding in this regard. However, they are yet to start the recruitment of the necessary staff at these facilities which shall be done soon.
The pending projects which are currently under consideration include one at IMHANS, Srinagar-which is going to be an in-patient facility-and one at GMC Jammu which had the space occupied due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The work on these projects is on and we are hopeful that the clearance for setting up these facilities will be given soon,” the officials said.
Notably, the mandate of setting up the Integrated Drug De-Addiction centres was given to the department by virtue of the Policy that was approved. There are also around 13 departments and stakeholders that were roped in and were assigned different roles and targets.
As per the policy-which hasn’t so far witnessed any major development with regard to the implementation in other areas-the existing de-addiction centres of GMC Srinagar and Jammu are supposed to be updated in terms of infrastructure and manpower to enhance the care level and provide linkage to the community.
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