VIGILANCE BUREAU RECOMMENDS SLEW OF STEPS TO UPHOLD SANCTITY OF DOPE TEST

• VB TAKES COGNISANCE OF IRREGULARITIES IN DOPE TESTS CONDUCTED IN GOVT HOSPITALS

Chandigarh, July 26:

A day after finding irregularities in conducting dope test for issuance and renewal of Arms Licenses in the state, Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) on Tuesday recommended slew of steps to ensure no arms license should be issued to any in-eligible person or substance user in order to prevent misuse of weapons.

An official spokesperson of the Vigilance Bureau said that the teams of VB, during the statewide surprise checking of government hospitals on Tuesday, found some irregularities and loopholes including photograph of the candidate was not found affixed on the DOPE tests register and paging of the DOPE tests register was not done. Even, the DOPE test report was given manually, which should not be given to the person concerned manually.

After finding these malpractices in the process, he said that the Punjab Vigilance Bureau will write to the higher authorities to make the dope test mechanism more robust so that sanctity for the same is upheld. The VB suggested that a copy of DOPE test report must be kept in record of the concerned hospital, and doctors and technicians should be deployed on rotation for DOPE testing so that there is no intervention of any agent.

The VB also suggested that the Register regarding daily DOPE tests should be checked and countersigned by senior officials on a regular basis. Frisking should be done outside the toilet before sending the person for a urine sample and the frisking process should be videographed. The process of DOPE testing should be made online. Bathrooms for collection of samples should also be close to the laboratory. Separate registers should be maintained for DOPE tests for arms licenses, new recruitments and jail inmates. Only regular government employees should be deputed to maintain DOPE test registers so that responsibility can be fixed in case of negligence.