Advocate approaches HC on plight of Mumbai Central Prison staff

Mumbai, Apr 13 (UNI) An advocate has submitted a letter to the Bombay High Court Chief Justice referring to the poor working conditions of the staff at the Mumbai Central Prison and seeking appropriate orders to improve their state.

Bombay High Court advocate Sushan Kunjuraman's application has been registered as a public interest litigation and is scheduled to be placed before the court for admission on April 19.

The advocate, in his letter, said the prison staff was suffering severe physical and mental trauma, and also faced threats to their lives during the discharge of their duties. The prison was inadequately staffed and lacked in amenities, the advocate said in the letter.

Although the number of prisoners have increased three to four times, the sanctioned strength of the jail staff has remained stagnant at 170 since the last 50 years, the letter has stated. As per the July 2005 statistics, the total number of prisoners stood at 2,959 as against the earlier prisoners' population of around 800.

Besides contending with an almost four-fold increase in the work load, the inadequate staff also face threats to their lives as evidenced by unsavoury past incidents in the jail.

The jail staff has to work for around 18 hours every day and, most often, have to forsake their weekly-offs and other holidays, the letter said. The jail has no canteen facilities nor are there any rest rooms to enable the staff to snatch a few moments of relaxation, says the letter.

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