An eye-in-the-sky will soon keep a watch inside the Punjab prisons. For, the Punjab Government has decided to use the drones besides installing the CCTV cameras in all jails to fortify the prison walls.
Apart from that, the Government has also decided to send the Punjab Police officers from its intelligence wing on deputation to the Jails Department, amending rules to grant parole, shifting of undertrial gangsters or radicals outside Punjab, filling up of vacancies, among others.
These, among others, are a slew of decisions taken by the State Government, during a high-level meeting headed by the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to review the prison security system, to strengthen the jail security.
The decisions came close on the heels of recent incidents of murder of the main accused in the Bargari sacrilege case in Nabha as well as a rioting in Ludhiana central jail. Other than that, several incidents like scuffle in Bathinda jail, deaths in Ludhiana jail, were also reported.
During the meeting, it was decided that the state’s intelligence officials will be sent on deputation to the Jails Department to assist the staff in collecting intelligence that might be vital to ensuring fool-proof security in jails.
In another important move, Capt Amarinder asked the Jails Department to formulate a comprehensive strategy to segregate undertrial gangsters and radicals from other prisoners, possibly by shifting them out to other jails outside the State mainly “to prevent radicalisation and planning of terrorist, gangster or criminal activities from jails”.
The Chief Minister also directed the Deputy Commissioners to visit the prisons in their respective districts once a month to ensure proper monitoring of the security arrangements and welfare measures there.
DCs have also been asked to make a personal inspection to identify lacunae, if any, in the security apparatus and ensure that the same are plugged without delay.
Chief Minister also ordered to fill all the 700 vacant posts of wardens “without delay”. The spokesperson informed that the Government is already in the process of recruiting 400 wardens for which the Finance Department has given approval, and the Chief Minister directed immediate clearance by the Department for the filling up of the remaining 300 odd vacancies also.
The Chief Minister also directed making physical tests and minimum criteria of physique mandatory for recruitment of wardens, in place of the existing practice of holding only written tests for them.
Instructions were issued to the Jails Department to review the Prisons Manual and make suitable amendments to make parole difficult for prisoners found to be creating problems during their stay in jails.
Citing the approval given by Union Home Minister for deputing four companies of the CRPF in exchange of IRB, the Chief Minister ordered modalities for the same to be worked out at the earliest while directing that the CRPF companies be posted on jail duty as soon as possible.
Taking cognizance of complaints about involvement of PESCO employees in smuggling of mobile phones etc into the prisons, the Chief Minister ordered that all such personnel deployed at jails be scrutinized.
Capt Amarinder also asked the DCs to work with NGOs to come out with ways of keeping the prisoners productively busy, either in the prison factories or as part of the schemes undertaken by the NGOs.
At the same time, the Chief Minister also approved the Jails Department’s proposal for establishing of a new prison in Mohali to ease congestion and pressure.