Proposal to replace Prison Act sent to government: DGP (Prison)

Jalandhar, Apr 2 (UNI) For betterment of jail administration and prisoners, a proposal has been sent to Punjab government to replace the existing Colonial Era Prison Act, 1894 with a new act, Director General of Police (Prison) Mohammad Izhar Alam said here today.

After visiting the Central Jail here after recent violence, Mr Alam in an informal talk with newspersons said the draft of the new Punjab Prison and Correctional Home Act had already been prepared and sent to the state govenment for recommendation.

As a part of modernisation of jails, he said video conferencing facilities would be provided in the three jails of Ludhiana, Barnala and Sangrur withing a year, besides, the facility would be available in two other yet to be constructed jails in Kapurthala and Faridkot districts within two years.

Modern gadgets including wireless sets, hand held searching devices alongwith other electronic instruments would be provided in all the jails, he said.

To decongest the already overcrowded 26 existing jails, he said the government was working to increase the capacity of jails from 10,000 to 18,000 including in the two new jails.

For the delay in constructions of new jails, he said the jails would be constructed at a cost of about Rs 130 crore by private companies and for this, tenders would be floaded soon.

While admitting the nexus between a few jail staff with some prisoners for providing drugs and mobile to the inmates, he said, ''To break the nexus, we are identifying the jail staff, who supplies drugs and mobiles to prisoners and action will be taken against them and will also be shifted somewhere else.'' UNI DP PS LS DB2257