The Punjab jails department has treated more than 22,000 drug addicts in the eight central jails of the state during the past year.
Stating this on Tuesday, jails minister Sohan Singh Thandal stated that under the de-addiction campaign launched by the department, 461 inmates were presently undergoing treatment in de-addiction centres in various jails.
He said the state government was incurring an expenditure of Rs 1.78 crore on making these de-addiction centres ultra-modern to help addicted jail inmates kick the drug habit.
The minister said 22,669 inmates had so far been treated successfully in these centres.
Thandal said these centres had been established in the central jails in Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Kapurthala, Ludhiana, Patiala, Bathinda, Faridkot and Ferozepur.