DRUG ADDICTION ALARMING IN STATE

CHANDIGARH, JULY 10. The Punjab Minister for Health and Family
Welfare, Dr. B.R. Chawla, has said 53 per cent of the urban population
and 48 per cent rural population in the State are addicted to one
intoxicant or another. Tuberculosis, on an average, claimed the lives
of 30 persons daily.

Talking to presspersons here on Wednesday, he said drug addiction and
use of other intoxicants were on the rise with school children
increasingly falling victim. ``It is distressing to note that people
had begun to give up intoxicants like alcohol and opium, only to start
consuming deadlier drugs and medicines like phencydryl, corex, and
proxyvon.''

Health authorities had conducted a survey of 5,000 students staying in
different hostels. It was found that every second male and every
eighth female student had tasted at least one toxicant. Deadly drugs
like smack and brown sugar were easily available to college students.

Dr. Chawla said the Civil Surgeon of Gurdaspur district had recently
conducted a surprise raid on a college and seized 300 empty bottles of
various cough syrups, which had perhaps been consumed in a day. At
least 50 full bottles were also recovered.

He said that under the pretext of de-addiction centres, Pakistan was
running two camps in Lahore and Karachi, to ensnare more Indian
youngters. This strategam formed part of the second phase of the proxy
war against India, launched by Pakistan's Inter- Services Intelligence
and Federal Intelligence Unit.

Dr. Chawla claimed that Pakistan had allocated $100 crores for
promoting anti-India activity through narco-terrorism. Deadly drugs
worth $60 crore were pumped into India, through smugglers who earlier
supplied arms and ammunition to militants in Punjab. To deal with the
situation, the State Government had launched a special de-addiction
drive in educational institutions. Voluntary organisations, NGOs,
local associations and philanthropic bodies would also involved.

Dr. Chawla said a special action programme was being chalked out. A
meeting of the heads of educational institutions, district drug
inspectors and the district civil surgeon would be convened to work
out the blueprint. This would be followed up with surprise raids on
educational institutions. ``While students using any intoxicant would
be dealt with strictly, action would also be initiated against the
head of the institution.''

The Minister said tuberculosis accounted for at least 30 lives a day
in Punjab, which had 3,00,000 full-blown TB cases. Another 75,000
cases had been reported sputum-positive. These patients had the
potential to infect 12 more persons. He admitted that the coverage for
TB treatment was not more than 65 per cent owing to the increasing
numbers of migrant labour.

Under another programme, district-level committees would be formed
with the Deputy Commissioner as the chairman and the civil surgeon as
vice-chairman. Voluntary organisations and other NGOs would collect
funds and account for the distribution of medicines.

The Minister said the Government planned to provide facilities to
screen migrant labourers at railway stations and bus termini and
owners of industrial units, hotels and other commercial
establishments, where migrant labourers are employed, would be
directed to get their employees undergo a mandatory medical check-up
three months and send the report to the Civil Surgeon.