A psycho-social counseling centre offering free counseling services to narcotic drug abusers has come into operation in Chitwan from today.

Bharatpur Metropolitan City (BMC) Mayor Renu Dahal and Inspector General of Police (IGP) Sarbendra Khanal jointly inaugurated the Centre set up on the premises of the District Police Office, Chitwan.

The Centre set up under the Nepal Police’s Community-Police Partnership Programme aims to discourage and prevent narcotic drug abuse by offering psycho-social counseling to those held on the charge of abusing narcotic drugs or contraband smuggling.

On the occasion, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between BMC and Nepal Police for the operation of the Centre.

BMC Mayor Dahal said that narcotic drug abuse was emerging as a challenging issue for the world, Dahal pressed for elevating bottom-up awareness level to combat against drug abuse.

She also insisted that the syllabus on the abuse of narcotic drugs should be developed to raise awareness about the impact of drug abuse.

Likewise, IGP Khanal, echoing with Dahal, spoke of the need for raising awareness at community-level for narcotic abuse prevention campaign. He said, "To reduce the users of narcotic drugs and those trading in the illegal drugs, it’s imperative to spearhead campaign at community and school level."

Similarly, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Basanta Lama, who heads the Centre, was hopeful that the Centre would give a new lease of life to the drug abusers through psychosocial counseling.

According to him, drug abuse accounted for 80 per cent among the unnatural death recorded in the police.

On the occasion, Chief District Officer (CDO) of Chitwan Narayan Prasad Bhattarai and Deputy Inspector General of Police Sher Bahadur Basnet had explained about the importance of the newly inaugurated Centre.