Newly-appointed IG Jail PVK Prasad held a meeting with the jail officers of all districts at Suddhowala Jail on Tuesday and gave them necessary instructions to strengthen the administration in jails.While talking to The Pioneer over phone, IG Prasad said that the jail officers have been strictly directed to ensure foolproof security in the jail campus.
Visitors reaching the jail to meet inmates are to be frisked effectively. The jail officials, found indulging in or conniving with illegal activities in the jail campus, will be dealt with stringently, he warned. He further said that the officers were directed to prepare a list of items which should be kept inside the jails. CCTV cameras and jammers will be monitored by responsible person from the jail department. Few years back, some prisoners appeared in the courts through video conferencing, but the system could not continue due to some reasons. The trial of hard- core criminals are held in various courts like those in Ghaziabad, Baghpat, Delhi, Haridwar and Dehradun.
A need is being felt to put such infrastructure in place to facilitate the trial of the notorious gangsters through video conferencing. The jail officers have been directed to study once again how video conferencing involving trial could be revived. They have been asked to draft a plan in this direction at the earliest.The jail officers have also been directed to draft proposals for strengthen infrastructure, including filling of vacant posts of the jail officials in their respective jails. Everyone knows about the lapses made by the officials in the jail campus which resulted in the recent Roorkee and Baghpat incidents. Taking note of this, the jail officers have been directed to take course correction to stop such incidents from recurring. All possible steps will be taken to strengthen the security of the jails in the State, he added.