L-G Anil Baijal nod to new guidelines for de-addiction centres in national Capital

The Lieutenant Governor (L-G) Anil Baijal has approved the guidelines for the functioning and setting up of de-addiction centres in the national Capital. The new guidelines formed are expected to provide a friendly environment rather than a "prison-like atmosphere", as stated in the draft prepared by the core commitee.

A nine-member committee had submitted its first draft on May 8 and has been finalised in July this year. As per the guidelines, the de-addiction centres need to follow the minimum standards to strike a balance between the safety and quality medical care of the inmates. The Delhi government on August 23 told the Delhi High Court that the set of rules will be notified and uploaded online by September 19.

"These guidelines have been followed to improve the functioning of the de-addiction centres. The new set of guidelines are expected to provide facilities for recreation, indoor and outdoor games, outings, family visits and other recreational tools," said a member of the core committee. DNA has a copy of the guidelines approved by the L-G.

According to officials in the social welfare department, there are only six de-addiction centres under various government hospitals in the Capital while there are around 498 centres run by NGOs and are recognised by the government.

The minimum standards, as per the officials, will be reviewed periodically every two years. These rules will be applicable to all government, private and NGO facilities working in the field of drug abuse and detoxification in the national Capital.

"The standards have been devised to strike an appropriate balance between respectable quality medico-psycho-social care, safety and optimal functioning of the centres. We hope that these rules will provide essential structure to the functioning of substance use treatment centres," said another member of the committee.

The court on July 12 had asked the L-G to finalise and approve the rules within four weeks, saying streamlining the facilities was of paramount importance as the people in need were fairly large in number. The court had, in November last year ordered that such centres running illegally in the Capital be immediately shut down.

The Delhi High Court in May this year had ordered a city-wide survey of private de-addiction centres to verify if people are being detained against their will in the name of the rehabilitation. The court had observed that there were 250-300 such illegal centres functioning in various parts of the city, with a majority of these scattered around the outskirts such as Rohini, Karawal Nagar, Babarpur and Nand Nagri, among others.