Malda: Illegal Addiction Rehabilitation Center sealed, raids to continue

Malda: Malda district administration with the police has started to seal the illegal Addiction Rehabilitation Centers in the district.

Such a centre at Old 16 Mile area under the Baishnabnagar police station has been sealed. 15 patients have been recovered from there and admitted to the psychiatry department of Malda Medical College and Hospital. There have been allegations that such centres extort money from the kin of addicted persons and unleash physical torture on them in the name of treatment.

It has been further alleged that no trained doctor or nurse with proper medication was available in these centres. These centres have repeatedly been asked to take the Clinical Establishment license properly by building adequate infrastructure but only 7 so far have done so. The district administration has now decided to locate the illegal centres and seal them. 30 such centres have already been identified by the authorities and a search for the others is on.

Nitin Singhania, District Magistrate Malda, said: “The drive will continue. No illegal establishment will be allowed. Stern action is being taken against those involved. In the past year, the opportunity was given to all of them to submit documents and ensure compliance for getting CE Certificate. Some of them did. Some did not.”

The district surveillance team further in their raids to stop medical malpractices closed an eye checkup centre in Habibpur on September 15.

Further, on recommendations from the team the district administration issued an advisory to the clinical establishments of the district not to perform any unnecessary hysterectomy operations, to document pre-anaesthetist checks-up and to refrain from any manipulation of medical documents of government hospitals.