UT, Divisional Level Committees rarely holding deliberations
*Non-seriousness prevailing despite no let up in menace
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Jan 17: Despite the fact that there is no let up in the drug menace in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, a detailed mechanism evolved nearly two years back to review the implementation of Drug De-addiction Policy has remained on papers only because of absolute non-seriousness at all the levels.
The State Administrative Council vide its Decision No.10/1/2019 dated January 4, 2019 had accorded sanction to the adoption of Drug De-addiction Policy in the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir.
The policy was notified by the Health and Medical Education Department vide Government Order No.41-HME dated January 11, 2019 wherein it was mentioned that Jammu and Kashmir has seen a steep rise in the burden of physical, mental and substance-use disorders over the past two decades.
Moreover, it was revealed in the policy that studies conducted in recent years have shown an alarming shift in the pattern of substance use in terms of rise in the number of female users, decreasing age of first-use, increasing use of solvents, injectable opiates as well as increasing drug related deaths (over-dose and accidents).
“The menace of drug-addiction is spreading widely and quickly taking the form of an epidemic and places where a bus cannot go, the deadly drugs reach”, the Government had admitted in the policy document.
In the month of March 2019, the Government came out with a detailed mechanism to supervise and review implementation of Drug De-addiction Policy and even roped in civil society members so that drug menace is fought effectively.
Under this mechanism, State (now UT) Level Policy Implementation Monitoring Committee and Jammu and Kashmir Division Level De-addiction Centre Monitoring Committees were constituted.
Headed by Chief Secretary and comprised of Administrative Secretaries of Health and Medical Education, School Education, Social Welfare and Law Departments, IGP Crime Branch and Excise Commissioner, the State (now UT) Level Committee was assigned the task of suggesting changes in the Drug De-addiction Policy from time to time as may be deemed necessary, try to look for financial support for various de-addiction activities in Jammu and Kashmir. Moreover, the committee was asked to meet twice in a year to monitor the implementation of policy on ground.
Similarly, the Divisional Level Committees headed by Administrative Secretary of Health and Medical Education Department and comprised of Directors of Health Services and other concerned officers were assigned the task of inspecting the existing de-addiction facilities in Jammu and Kashmir and grant or cancel licenses after through and proper inspection of infrastructure, manpower and standards of care.
These committees were also supposed to advise various stakeholders from time to time for implementation of Drug De-addiction Policy on ground and look at monitoring of prescription drug abuse and suggest remedial measures to Drug Controller.
“However, both UT and Divisional Level Committees are rarely holding deliberations on the implementation of the Drug De-addiction Policy and other connected matters”, official sources told EXCELSIOR, adding “during the past several months no meeting of these committees has been convened by the concerned authorities as a result of which nobody in the administration is aware of actual status of implementation of policy”.
They further said, “it seems that the Government was concerned over increasing drug menace only up to the stage of framing of policy and putting in place monitoring mechanism otherwise it would have ensured periodic meetings of UT as well as Divisional Level Committees and obtained their feed-back for carrying out necessary changes in the policy if any”, adding “due to absolute non-serious approach at various level the objectives of the policy could not be achieved till date”.
“The Government is required to pay serious attention towards implementation of policy as drug menace is leading to enhanced crime rate and wastage of potential of young generation”, sources said, adding “everybody associated with the implementation of policy must understand that drug abuse is fast proving malicious to the society by causing physical, psychological and intellectual decay”.
Moreover, all those civil society members who were made members of the UT and Divisional Level Committees are required to exert pressure on the Chairman of the respective panels to start holding serious deliberations to assess the implementation status of the policy, sources further stressed.
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