Guwahati: Assam government on Monday launched Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) Dispensation Centres at six central jails across the state.
The centres were opened at Guwahati, Silchar, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Tezpur and Nagaon central jails.
Assam health minister Keshab Mahanta centrally inaugurated the centres at Central Jail, Guwahati.
Speaking at the event, minister Mahanta said, “Prisons were considered as punishment homes during the British era but nowadays prisons are temples of reformation where a prison inmate gets an opportunity to get himself reformed. Besides, health facilities, facilities like a library for the inmates are already there and now we are going a step further by establishing ART Dispensation Centres and OST services so that prison inmates can avail themselves the treatment in jails itself.”
He further appreciated the efforts undertaken by ASACS and jail authorities for the establishment of ART Dispensation Centres in Central Jails.
Barnali Sharma, Inspector General, Prisons, urged ASACS for taking initiative for the establishment of Drug De-addiction Centres in jails which will be immensely helpful for the drug users.
ASACS project director Pomi Baruah in her speech said, “Assam is the 5th state in the country to have ART Dispensation Centres in jails.”
She further said that these ART Dispensation Centres will be linked with 9 ART Centres which are located in medical colleges and district hospitals across Assam and very soon all medical colleges will have ART Centres.
She further said, “There are Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST) services for injecting drug users in Central Jail, Guwahati and very soon OST services will be made available in other jails across Assam.