KATHMANDU, NOVEMBER 15

The Ministry of Home Affairs is preparing to distribute grants for drug users' treatment and rehabilitation centres to ensure the right to basic health services for each citizen as set down in the constitution.

For the purpose of providing grants to eligible rehabilitation centres for the fiscal 2022-23, Drug Control Section of the MoHA has called on interested rehabilitation centres to submit application to the Section within 15 days. A notice inviting application was published yesterday. It said rehabilitation centres that have not exceeded the time limit of one year after getting grant earlier, and those that have not completed two years of establishment would not be eligible to receive the amount.

The application should be accompanied by a copy of the association/organisation's registration certificate, statute of the concerned organisation, decision of annual general meeting, annual audit report, tax clearance certificate of the last fiscal, certificate of VAT/ PAN registration, map of the organisation, and details of human resources.

The proposals will be selected on merit basis for providing grants.

It informed that an agreement will be reached with the selected rehabilitation centres regarding utilisation of grants being provided to them. MoHA officials will conduct on-site monitoring of rehabilitation centres prior to selection of the rehabilitation centres for providing grant. The MoHA said the grants would be utilised by rehabilitation centres for conducting skill development training for drug users who undergo treatment there. The rehabilitation centres claiming grant should be established and operated in a place with clean and peaceful environment, in close proximity to a hospital or a health institution with transportation facilities. A rehabilitation centre should have at least one ropani land in Kathmandu valley and a minimum of three ropani land in other parts of the country.

'The upper limit of the grant to be provided to the registered rehabilitation centres will be in line with the approved budget and programme of the MoHA,' the MoHA said. Any rehabilitation centre that has not conducted annual general meeting, has not held elections of board of directors and accounts committee, has not carried out annual audit of the last fiscal and has not submitted tax clearance certificate will not be entitled to the grant. The government will recover the grant amount provided to rehabilitation centres if the grant is found to have been misused or embezzled, it warned.

A version of this article appears in the print on November 16, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.