In a significant development, the jail authorities are mulling to provide telephone facilities to all the inmates of the jails located across the State to enable them to talk to their relatives once a week. IG (Jail) PVK Prasad said on Wednesday that things were under their active consideration. This came against the backdrop of a mobile phone being recently recovered from Sitarganj (Udham Singh Nagar) jail by a Sub-Divisional Magistrate Bhagat Singh Fonia. Acting on a tip-off, Fonia had raided the jail and seized a mobile phone from an inmate on Sunday night.
The observers are confused whether such an initiative when implemented would further dent into the jail security with the jails suffering from acute staff crunch for a long time. “The proposal would trigger worry in view of the fact that some hardened criminals are said to have firmed up crime plans over mobiles from within the jail premises. Would the jail authority ensure that the facility would not be misused this wayIJ” asked an observer.
Earlier, Prasad had warned all the jail officers, stating that stringent actions would be taken against them if mobile phones are found inside the jail campus. IG Prasad may have thought that the inmates, sentenced for four years or more, should not be prevented from using mobile phones. “One may wonder why he has softened tacks. Maybe, their recent visit to Tihar jail to see for themselves the facilities the inmates there were enjoying has inspired them to emulate things in the jails of the state. Providing these facilities to the jail inmates is ethically correct as the jails are presently called as correctional homes and not places where they are meant to suffer eternal damnation. However, whether providing such facilities to the seasoned and congenital criminals with the jails reeling under acute staff crunch is a question that should be looked into,” opined an observer.
Things were such that a senior police senior officer wondered whether there is any department in the state as well as in the country where 75 per cent of the posts remain vacant for years. Senior IPS officer PVK Prasad was made IG jail to stem the tide of security being trifled with. However, things have been vegetating with the state administration not providing the jail administration with adequate officers and infrastructure. The jail authorities had sent proposals a few months ago, demanding recruitment of jail staffs and seeking 125 police officers and police personnel on deputation from the police department to overcome the crunch. However, those in positions to address the demands keep on sitting on them for reasons best known to them.
It should be mentioned here that in connection with shootout incident involving rivals led by seasoned criminals Cheenu Pandit and Sunil Rathi outside Roorkee sub-jail on August 9, 2014, resulting in the death of four persons, police had recovered mobile phones, coolers and other luxurious items being used by these notorious criminals while being lodged in the jail right from the jail campus. Besides, deputy jailor Rakesh Verma who was allegedly involved in facilitating the same is now cooling his heels in Haridwar jail. In course of investigation, police had found that gangster Rathi had drafted a plan using mobile phones to kill Cheenu Pandit outside the jail campus the day he was to come out of the jail on bail.