Punjab Jails Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Tuesday virtually sought the help of the lawmakers to identify the lawbreakers in the State prisons.
Randhawa, while responding to the calling attention notice by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs Saravjit Kaur Manuke and Aman Arora on the lawlessness prevailing the state’s jails, urged all the legislators to personally carry out visits of the jails in their respective areas and inform about the irregularities to him.
At the same time, the Minister informed the House that the Department is also considering the proposal to set up its separate Intelligence Wing to keep tabs on the trouble mongers amongst the prisoners and the under-trials.
To make the proposed intelligence wing operational, the police officers from the Home Department could be requested to join, besides the efforts will be made to get the required posts created for the purpose in due course.
Besides, Randhawa informed that the Department is working with the Punjab and Haryana High Court to set up special courtrooms indie the jail premises to ensure that trials of dreaded criminals are held in the jail itself.
Admitting the flaws in the jails department while also highlighting the steps initiated to improve its functioning, Randhawa admitted that the prohibited items were brought inside the jail premises “hidden in vegetables”, even in the undergarments of some visitors.
AAP MLA Aman Arora highlighted that in Sangrur Jail, “everything is available inside the jails, but on high prices. The Rs 10 pouch of tobacco is available in jail at exorbitant price of Rs 200. And the same reached inside the jails hidden in the material required for whitewash,” he claimed asking the Minister to get it checked.
Making startling revelation, Randhawa said that the state police never informed the Jails Department about involvement of some people in pushing mobile phones in the prisons.
“As many 576 mobile phones have been recovered from different jails in the last six months. But what is unfortunate that the police never informed us who and how these mobile phones, which have been handed over to it after recovery from inmates, reached jails. They never tell us who were using these mobiles. I should know it so I can take action against if any jail official involved in it,” said Randhawa.
He informed to check the menace, Rs 11 crore had been sanctioned for installing mobile phone jammers in the state’s jails, against the requirement of Rs 27 crore to cover the half of the jails this year and remaining in the next budget.
“The Department is replacing already installed 3G, 2G jammers with jammers capable of dealing with 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G technologies,” he said adding that the jammers have already been installed in Gurdaspur Central Jail, Sangrur District Jail, Maximum Security Jail Nabha, and Kapurthala Central Jail.
For effective surveillance of jail inmates, 700 CCTV cameras have also been installed at strategic locations in jails and 3,000 more would be installed in a phased manner, he said.
After Arora stressed on prisoners’ reforms and bringing them in the mainstream, Randhawa informed that yoga classes are being held and spiritual leaders are also conducting sessions at regular intervals.
Olympian and the former captain of Indian hockey Pargat Singh left his own Government red faced by questioning the poor functioning of the state’s Sports Department.
Congress MLA from Jalandhar Cantt, Pargat asked the Sports Department to pull its socks up saying that the Department was running just on “papers”, instead of “practical” training.
Appreciating the government for rewarding its sportsperson who have brought laurels to the state, he asked what it was doing for the budding players.
Pargat Singh’s assertions came after the Sports Minister Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi eulogised his department in the state assembly in response to a Calling Attention Motion moved by Akali Dal MLA Pawan Kumar Tinu regarding delay in conducting trials for selection of sportspersons at a state sports college in Jalandhar.
Even as the Minister was patting his department's work for taking several steps towards promotion and grooming of sports talent in the State, Pargat Singh sought the Speaker's permission to have his say on the issue.
“I want to draw the Minister's attention that trials for the selection of sportspersons take place in January and February. But it is unfortunate that there has been no practical work at the ground level,” said the renowned hockey player.
“This is the reality. We are running this Department only on papers. Today, this department does not have a single tender for knickers,” he said.