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Jupinderjit Singh
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, January 17
Now on, all undertrials and convicts will have to undergo a dope test on their arrival at any of the Central or district jails in Punjab. They would be re-tested after six months of incarceration to know if they had access to drugs in the jail or not. The dope test would also be carried out on those already serving time or undertrials.
There have been allegations that drugs are easily available in Punjab jails and the addiction level of inmates worsens inside prisons. Officials hope the mandatory dope test will provide a clear data.
ADGP (Prisons) IPS Sahota has issued an order for the mandatory blood and urine tests of inmates with immediate effect. On an average, traces of an intoxicant can be detected about 10 days after consumption. The Prison Department has asked jail authorities to provide immediate de-addiction and rehabilitation facilities to addicts. The treatment is free of cost.
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The test results would be known on the spot. Sahota said the department already had dope test kits. “We have also collaborated with the state Health Department for the use of test kits,” he added. The Prison Department would need around 1.25 lakh blood-testing kits annually. It had written to the state Home Department for funds. Sahota said the testing would be done at nine central and 11 district jails. Six sub-jails don’t have the infrastructure to carry out the test at the moment. He said the department had an adequate number of doctors, but they might need more lab technicians.
As per a 2015 study, around 47 per cent of the 26,000 inmates in Punjab jails were either addicts or drug smugglers/peddlers.
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