Free guide · De-addiction & rehabilitation centres · State
What the state actually requires, who registers it, and the steps in order, built from public sources with a high documentation rating.
Regardless of which state or union territory you are in, a de-addiction or rehabilitation centre typically sits under some combination of these. This part does not change from state to state, so it is worth reading once even if you only care about Punjab.
Its definition of mental illness includes mental conditions associated with the abuse of alcohol or drugs. Because of this, most centres offering inpatient or residential care need to register as a Mental Health Establishment (MHE) with their State Mental Health Authority (SMHA) under Section 65. Purely outpatient counselling-only services are often exempt, but this varies by state. Practising in an unregistered inpatient MHE carries a penalty under Section 107(2).
Section 71 allows government to establish or recognise centres for treatment and supply of narcotic drugs to registered addicts. Several states have used this as the legal basis for their own de-addiction centre licensing rules. Buprenorphine, the medicine most Indian centres actually dispense, is not on the central "Essential Narcotic Drugs" list and is instead governed by state-specific rules or general NDPS and Schedule H1 controls.
Separate from MHCA registration, most states require any facility providing inpatient medical care to register under the state's clinical establishment or nursing home law, or the central Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2010 where adopted.
The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment's National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction funds NGOs running Integrated Rehabilitation Centres for Addicts (IRCA), Community Peer-Led Intervention centres (CPLI), Outreach and Drop-In Centres (ODIC), and District De-Addiction Centres (DDAC), typically covering up to 90 percent of approved expenditure (95 percent in the North-Eastern states, Sikkim, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh).
If you want to run an Opioid Substitution Therapy programme under the national HIV harm-reduction umbrella rather than a self-funded one, accreditation runs through NACO and your State AIDS Control Society instead, under a separate set of operational guidelines.
This national layer applies whether or not Punjab has notified additional rules of its own, covered next.
Punjab has the country's most mature, and most actively regulated, private de-addiction sector, largely because of the scale of its opioid crisis. It was also the first state to notify dedicated rules for licensing private centres: the Punjab Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Counselling and Rehabilitation Centres Rules, 2011, notified 16 January 2011 under the NDPS Act, 1985, with staff-requirement norms set out in Rule 14C(I).
Punjab pioneered Outpatient Opioid Assisted Treatment (OOAT), launched in 2017, running government and licensed private clinics dispensing buprenorphine-naloxone on an induction, stabilisation, then maintenance schedule, with take-home dosing rules progressively relaxed over time. In late 2025 the state cabinet approved an overhaul of the private OOAT sector after irregularities in medicine stock and diversion were found; the number of centres a single private operator can run is now capped at five. Every new patient must be registered with a unique ID, ideally linked to Aadhaar or a mobile number, and every licensed centre must connect its computerised patient registry to the state's central registry so the same patient cannot draw medication from multiple centres. Centres must maintain a Central Consumable Stock Register and a per-patient dispensing register, and file monthly returns with the Civil Surgeon's office.
The term "de-addiction centre" covers several structurally different setups, funded and regulated differently. Knowing which one you are building determines which office in Punjab you need to approach first.
NGO-run, largely residential, grant-funded by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment under NAPDDR.
District-level facility combining IRCA, ODIC and CPLI functions under one roof.
A treatment unit inside a government hospital or medical college, run under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's Drug De-Addiction Programme.
Community Peer-Led Interventions and Outreach and Drop-In Centres do prevention, early identification and harm reduction. They are not licensed treatment beds.
Opioid Substitution Therapy, prescribing a substitute opioid (usually buprenorphine-naloxone) under medical supervision. Needs its own drug-handling authorisation on top of any general de-addiction licence.
Residential or outpatient, self-funded. Needs Mental Health Establishment registration, general clinical establishment registration, and an NDPS-linked licence if it dispenses controlled substances.
A general psychiatric facility that also treats substance use disorder alongside other psychiatric illness.
Prolonged counselling and rehabilitative support during and after treatment, without necessarily providing acute medical detoxification itself.
Check these directly rather than relying on any secondary summary, including this one.
Centres offering inpatient or residential de-addiction care in Punjab are registered by the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Punjab, through the Civil Surgeon of each district. This sits alongside the general clinical establishment or nursing home registration that applies to any facility providing inpatient care.
Punjab is one of the better-documented states on this: dedicated NDPS-linked rules and a distinctive statewide treatment model both confirmed in detail. That said, treat this as a starting point rather than a final answer, since fees, forms and application steps are revised from time to time.
Yes, through the NAPDDR route rather than a private licence. Large facility count, with the country's most developed OOAT/OST network. NGOs can apply to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to run a grant-funded facility such as an IRCA or DDAC, typically covering a large share of approved expenditure, though this is a separate application from any state licensing process.
Registration gets you the licence. What keeps it is the ongoing record-keeping: the stock register, the per-patient dispensing log, the withdrawal severity scores, the monthly returns. MindFlow's de-addiction module keeps the substitution-therapy dispensing register, ward records and NDPS-linked stock log in one auditable place instead of a separate paper file.
See the de-addiction suite →This guide is informational, not legal advice. It reflects publicly available sources reviewed at the time of writing and is meant to help you identify which authorities and laws to check for Punjab, not to serve as a final compliance reference. Mental Healthcare Act implementation is uneven across India, and independent trackers such as the Keshav Desiraju India Mental Health Observatory have found that only a minority of states have issued detailed state-level mental health regulations, so requirements can be genuinely unsettled in some jurisdictions. Confirm current requirements directly with your State Mental Health Authority, state or UT health department, and a lawyer qualified in Indian health and narcotics law before making licensing or investment decisions.