Sindh to make two centres in Karachi functional to rehabilitate drug addicts

The Sindh government, under its resolve to tackle the menace of drug addiction in the province, has decided to make functional two detoxification centres in Karachi from next month.

The decision to this effect was reached at a meeting held at the Sindh Secretariat on Thursday with Chief Secretary (CS) Dr Muhammad Sohail Rajput in the chair. In addition to relevant provincial government officials, the meeting was attended by representatives of the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF).

The meeting was informed that two centres were being built by the government in Malir and Manghopir areas for the rehabilitation of drug addicts. The CS asked the secretary for the works and services department to complete the building of the two detoxification centres by December 1 and hand them over to the ANF for making them functional.

The meeting decided that afterwards more such rehabilitation facilities would be built in the province in collaboration with the ANF. It was informed that ANF officials had taken action after complaints were received regarding the illegal consumption of drugs in educational institutions of the province, but several privately run educational institutions had not been cooperating with the officials concerned to conduct the desired lawful action against the menace of narcotics.

At this, the CS asked the officials concerned to constitute a committee under the law secretary to draft a law to make it binding upon the educational institutions to cooperate with the anti-narcotics officials in their drive against drug use.

The meeting also decided to form a four-member committee under the information secretary for conducting a media awareness campaign to make the people aware of the menace of narcotics in society.

The CS asked the officials concerned to use conventional mass media and social media to run the awareness campaign, especially to make the students of schools, colleges and universities aware of the menacing problem of drug use.

The ANF officials briefed the meeting that so far in the current year some 201 criminal cases had been lodged and 194 accused persons had been arrested for their involvement in illegal drug sales in the province.

The ANF, during different raids, recovered 5,578 kilograms of Charas, 10,927 of kilograms of hashish, and 30kgs of opium. The ANF also eradicated poppy cultivation over an area of 35 acres.

The meeting was attended by Karachi Commissioner Muhammad Iqbal Memon, Sindh Secretary Information Abdul Rasheed Solangi and provincial secretaries for school education, college education, social welfare, and works and services.

Farmers’ assistance

Attending another meeting of the committee of the Sindh government to provide relief to the farmers, Dr Sohail Rajput said the wheat growers in the province would be provided emergency cash assistance in view of their losses due to recent floods.

He directed the officials concerned to immediately form committees to collect data of the affected farmers in the province. The proposed committees will comprise the area tapedar, the chairman of the union council, a field official of Sindh Agriculture Department, and a representative of the civil society. The data to be collected as the result of the surveys by the committees would be uploaded on a smartphone application for speeding up the process of disbursal of the cash assistance.

Adviser to Chief Minister on Agriculture, Manzoor Hussain Wassan said the field officials of the agriculture department were available in every rural portion of the province for helping out the wheat growers. He said the task to provide emergency cash assistance would be completed by next month.

Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah said representatives of non-governmental organisations should be involved in the process of surveying the affected farmers in the province. He asked the deputy commissioners and provincial agriculture officials to accelerate the process of providing cash assistance to the needy farmers.