A day after mass recovery of mobiles, narcotics and cash from Punjab jails, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal on Monday announced to make the State’s jails virtual “correction homes” soon.
Sukhbir, who also holds the Home portfolio, reiterated his commitment to turn the State jails as virtual ‘correction homes’ by ensuring implementation of jail manual in true letter and spirit.
For the same, he asked the Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Prisons, to take all required steps to check any illegal activity especially usage of drugs or mobile phones in jails by the inmates.
Currently on tour to China leading a high-level delegation, Sukhbir reviewed the Sunday’s joint swift action of Punjab police and department in the jails with Punjab Director General of Police Suresh Arora and ADGP, Prisons, MK Tiwari over telephone.
In a statement, Sukhbir said that stringent legal action should be taken against any violation so that these jails shouldn’t become breeding ground for anti-social elements and encourage their illegal activities.
He also emphasised the need for usage of latest technology in the form of jammers, CCTV cameras besides pressing in to service the highly trained sniffer dogs to keep tab on notorious jail inmates.
The State police chief Suresh Arora informed the Deputy Chief Minister that keeping in view the shortage of officers in jail department, the State Police has decided to post some tough officers as Jail Superintendents for efficient management of central jails.
He said that during the recent statewide search operations, some shortcomings have been noticed and Jail department has been apprised of those. “82 mobile phones were seized in last four months and 65 more have been recovered on Sunday,” he said.
Arora said that soon, all the jails of State would have sufficient jammers and coverage of their every nook and corner with CCTV cameras.
He categorically said that the State police would extend every possible help and support to the Jail Department to keep these jails free of objectionable or prohibited material so that these could never become house for drugs and organised crime.
Day before, a major search operation was jointly conducted by the State Prison Department and Civil Administration early in the morning as a part of its ongoing drive to ensure that the jails in Punjab are free of objectionable or prohibited material and do not become house for drugs and organised crime.
The teams recovered 21 mobile phones including four smartphones, five mobile batteries, two mobile chargers, 11 charging leads, three head phones, eight sim cards, two memory cards, Rs 14,340 in cash, five bundles of bidis, and 11 silver foils. Besides, 20 tablets of 0.5 mg of clonazepam, nine tablets of colazepam were also recovered. The largest haul was in Amritsar.
The raid came a day after the state DGP Suresh Arora had categorically said that special emphasis would be laid on strengthening the jails not only by providing required number of police officers but also enhancing electronic surveillance in the form of installing more jammers and CCTV to cover every nook and corner of jails.
The search operation was conducted in Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran, Fazilka, Moga, Faridkot, Mansa, Sri Muktsar Sahib and maximum security jail at Nabha, Modern Jail Nabha, Patiala, Sangrur, Ropar jails and Sub-jail Barnala simultaneously.