Baripada: Even as the government has been discouraging use of tobacco, other narcotics and liquor, some people run de-addiction centres across the district though sponsorship of the social security department. But sadly, many of them are unregistered while inmates are allegedly being tortured. Cases of torture have come up in the past and recently.
A 15-bed de-addiction centre is run in Baripada town without the knowledge of the district administration. It was alleged that a youth who was brought to the centre to wean him away from addiction was subjected to torture October 5.
The youth managed to escape from the premises of the de-addiction centre at Madhupur and narrated to media persons what happened to him.
Surprisingly, the social security department is not monitoring activities and performance of the de-addiction centres.
Reports said, there are three to four de-addiction centres running illegally at Baripada, Raghunathpur, Madhuban and Debendrapur.
All these centres have only trust registration but were not registered with the district administration.
Some locals alleged that these centres are supposed to wean away people from addiction, but in most cases, the addicted people get tortured and beaten by staff.
It was alleged that inmates are not allowed to meet their kin. Besides, all these certres take anything between Rs 6000 and Rs 10,000 per person. Inmates are supposed to get medical check-up, nutritious food and do yoga on a daily basis, but they are deprived of these facilities in some cases.
About one and a half years ago, the district administration had sealed a de-addiction centre at Kalikapur following an allegation of torture on an inmate.
District social security officer Naresh Bindhani said that he had asked the manager of Madhupur de-addiction centre and checked the documents.
“It has trust registration, but it is not registered with the district administration. The authorities of the centre have been told to immediately register it at the district administration,” Bindhani added.
He also said that necessary data about all these centres will be collected soon.
PNN
