Ludhiana (Punjab) [India], Aug 31 (NT): Punjab Police on Thursday rescued 42 people who are suffering from drug addiction. All the people were rescued from Disha Rehabilitation Centre in Ludhiana after receiving complaints that they were reportedly being ill-treated at the institution.

According to the reports the rehabilitation centre is not registered. Soon after the rescue, the patients were rushed to the civil hospital in the city.

The centre was working illegally. Now MLR, medical, blood and other tests of these people will do. The object of the rehabilitation centre is to help these people lead a normal lifestyle so that they never think about drugs again but the center did injustice to innocent people, said a doctor from the civil hospital hospital.

On August 20, the Chief Ministers of the Northern States commonly decided to set up a regular secretariat in Punchkula to deal with the issue of drug threat in their respective states.

The declaration was made by Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar after a meeting along with the Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, and Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat. Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur also was present in the meeting through video conferencing. (NT)