Haryana seeks Rs 140 cr Central aid for prisons

Chandigarh, Apr 25 (UNI) The Haryana Government has sought financial assistance of Rs 140 crore from the Centre under the second phase of Prison Modernisation Plan, Power Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala said today.

The amount was required to increase the capacity of some district jails as well as to build new jails in five other districts of the state to ease the congestion in the jails.

''The state government has already submitted a proposal to the Central Government for this financial assistance,'' he added.

Mr Surjewala was speaking at the All India Conference on Draft National Policy on Prisons Reforms and Correctional Administration organised by the Union Home Ministry at DRDO Auditorium at New Delhi today.

He said the state had doubled the prison capacity in the last three years by constructing three modern jails at Karnal, Gurgaon and Narnaul. ''The state will have additional capacity for 4000 inmates after completion of construction work on three other jails this year to remove congestion from the jails in Haryana,'' he added.

UNI MA SW DB2002