CM allocates Rs45m for drug rehabilitation efforts

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah allocated Rs45 million for renovating and upgrading the Benazir Shaheed treatment and rehabilitation centre for drug addicts, in Lyari, as well as setting-up a similar facility in Sukkur, on Wednesday.

The amount was promised to be paid in a meeting held between the CM and Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) Director General, Major General Nasir Dilawar. The DG while briefing Shah said the Lyari centre provided by the Sindh government was a 50-bed hospital, only for men.

The provincial government’s monthly grant paid to the centre was Rs500,000 which was spent in meeting salary and other expenditures, the DG observed.   On the CM’s view on upgrading the facility, the DG ANF informed him that the force had already started working on adding 100 beds to the facility, but the project’s completion was being hampered owing to a shortage of funds.

The chief minister approved Rs40 million for the completion of the project and doubled its monthly grant from Rs0.5 million to Rs1 million; the DG ANF was urged to complete the project at the earliest.

Shah also stressed on setting-up a rehabilitation centre catering to female drug users. He further stated that there was a need to establish another centre for drug addicts in Sukkur, which would also cater to people of northern and southern Sindh.

For the Sukkur project, the ANF was granted Rs5 million; Shah further urged the DG to begin construction of the centre and ensured providing necessary funding for other expenditures of the Sukkur rehabilitation centre. "There is a need to set-up government-run rehabilitation centres since privately owned centres were not affordable for everyone," he said.