A few days after the audacious jail break occurred in the high security Nabha jail in Patiala, Punjab, IG Jail PVK Prasad said while talking to The Pioneer after he met the jail superintendents and jail officers in Dehradun that the armed prison guards would be given training in the use of arms for the first time since the state was formed. The jailors have been directed to impart such training to the armed prison guards in conjunction with the district police. The dreaded criminals would be kept in separate barracks to stop them from attempting to escape from the jails, he further said.
Besides, to make security fool-proof outside the jails, the superintendents of various district jails have been asked to seek help from the local administration and police. Notably, there are 11 jails and two sub-jails in the State.
“It must be ensured by any means that the inmates of the jails have no access to mobile phones. Besides, the jail officials must be fully on their guard regarding the visitors coming to meet the inmates,” he said.
However, many of the state jails have been grappling with acute crunch of the armed prison guards. While welcoming the decision of the IG Jail to give them training in the use of arms, a senior official of the State’s only open jail at Sitaraganj in Udham Singh Nagar Jayant Pangti said that his jail is reeling under acute shortage of the armed prison guards. “Out of 176 sanctioned posts of armed prison guards, only 24 have been employed and rest of the posts are lying vacant,” he added.
Meanwhile, Dehradun Suddhowala jail superintendent MS Gwal said that in response to his earlier appeal for sprucing up security outside the jail, Dehradun police had provided one and half section of PAC jawans.
He again expressed concern over the fact that the jail is lodging inmates, the number more than double than the sanctioned strength. “We are keeping over 1200 men, many of them hardened criminals, whereas the sanctioned strength is less than half the figure. Besides, we are grappling with acute staff crunch,” he said.
It is learnt from the jail sources that leaves of senior jail officers have been cancelled in the wake of the Nabha jail break.
Sources further say that things in the Haridwar district jail are grim too with over 1000 persons, including notorious gang lords and criminals, being lodged against the sanctioned strength of around 800. The staff crunch is acute too with the posts of 22 staffers out of the sanctioned figure of 107 lying vacant. Nobody knows when these would be filled.
However, as stop-gap, PRD personnel and home guards are working for vacant posts to strengthen security inside the jail campus. The security of the outside of the jail is not up to the mark too. The Haridwar jail officers have sought adequate police posting outside the jail campus near Rajaji National Park area from Haridwar SSP. Things regarding CCTV cameras and jammers are far from satisfactory too, making them further vulnerable, grumbled the jail officials from Haridwar.