SHILLONG, MAY 23: The social welfare department and the police department will discuss and set a new approach towards dealing with the problem of drug menace during the upcoming state level meeting of the Drug Reduction Elimination and Action Mission (DREAM) to be held next week.

Social Welfare Minister Paul Lyngdoh on Thursday informed that the meeting will be convened on Tuesday next and it will be attended by the Director General of Police (DGP) and senior officials of the home police department and social welfare department.

“We have identified certain gaps and missing links between the activities of the social welfare and the home police department. These various concerns of the department will be highlighted at the meeting scheduled for 2 pm on Tuesday next week,” he said.

The minister said, “the meeting is scheduled for Tuesday next is very important because we will first try to have a point of synergy and consensus with the home police department. Now a new DGP has just taken over. A new mission director of the DREAM project has already been identified and she will take over once the MCC period is over.”

“Therefore, there will be a new approach towards the problem of drug menace. We will tackle it with all the firmness that is required and after the session on Tuesday with the home police department, where we expect that it will culminate into a synergy of approach, we will then involve all the MLAs across the state and call them on a district wise basis,” he added.

Whether the government under the DREAM project will extend financial aid for treatment of drug users in view that the majority of them come from poor family backgrounds, Lyngdoh said, “We will examine various aspects. As of now, in the current financial year, we have a balance of roughly Rs 4.5 crore, which we will spend for various initiatives and programmes to try to curtail and eradicate drug menace from Meghalaya.”

“So the point that you had raised will also be one of the issues that we will be discussed at Tuesday’s meeting and we will also try to identify reputed NGOs and self-help groups, civil society groups, which we will request their support in coming forward and we will incentivise them with certain funds in order to help the government in its endeavour,” he added.

On the need to address the problem of high cost of treatment by rehabilitation centres, the minister said that is why the government would like the DREAM project to be a community oriented programme.

“We would like it to be a community oriented programme as has happened in the case of Mawlai Town Dorbar. Whoever has been under their care, there was not a single rupee charged from any of those beneficiaries for the entire period of their stay until they are certified to have completed the entire orientation and counselling programme. So it was totally free of cost,” he added.

Whether the department has SOPs in place for rehabilitation centres, Lyngdoh said, “we already have a set of SOPs but we will need to further revisit those SOPs in order to mitigate chances of incidents like you have mentioned.”

He also informed that the government had already identified the drug hotspots across the state.

“In fact, these include names of villages in various districts of Meghalaya and the hotspots are spread across the state,” he added.

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