The jail inmates across the State are agitating to get back the old facility of articles from home. In some of the jails, the undertrials are on hunger-strike. The inmates for decades used to get different articles from home, including tomatoes, cucumber, onion, new clothes, bidi, cigarettes.
After the recent incident of SIMI operatives fleeing from Bhopal Central Jail, Director-General of Prisons Sanjay Choudhary issued an order on December 9 banning the entry of any article brought from the relatives of the prisoners in the jail premises.
This order has united al the inmates in different jails across Madhya Pradesh. The agitation started on December 10, when the order reached the respective Jail Superintendents and implemented.
In the past two days, senior jail officials including DIG Jail Sanjay Pandey visited a few Central jails and tried to convince the prisoners that the jail department is with them. With this, in most of the prisons the prisoners have started taking meals, but in a few jails, the inmates are still not ready to have meals.
To this peculiar situation, DG Jail Sanjay Chaudhary told 'The Pioneer' that the situation is very much under control. When asked if the inmates do not take meals, what would be the outcome, he said, "let them stop taking meals. In such a situation, we would deal with them as per the Jail Manual."
“By now, they had been enjoying facilities of getting articles from home. With restrictions, they would certainly face problems now. However, we are ready to listen them for their genuine demands and efforts are being made to fulfil their genuine demands,” Choudhary added.
Meanwhile, Ujjain Jail Superintendent Gopal Tamrakar said that the situation is under control but tense. “Since we live with them round-the-clock, they are ready to believe our words that the facilities would be restored. But how long can we convince them with such promises,” he said, adding that with the genuine demands of the inmates, he has sent a proposal to the Jail headquarters.