‘More staff for Ludh jail to curb illegal mobile phone use inside premises’

Ludhiana: Concerned over the series of recoveries of mobile phones from Ludhiana Central Jail and involvement of jail inmates in the crimes outside via mobiles, the prison department is planning to recruit more security personnel for implementing rotational duties in the premises.
Jail minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said the staff crunch and lack of funds were the primary reasons for lag in surveillance. The prison department will soon start recruitment security personnel, he added.
Randhawa told TOI, “I know it is a major issue. Mobiles are being recovered from inmates and in some cases the security personnel are also found involved. These two issues can be resolved with more security personnel and funds. At present, we need 2,000 more security personnel to make three-tier security in all jails. I have got approval for recruitment of 300 security personnel and would soon start it. Secondly, I want security of jails to be in hands of reserved forces and police. The security personnel we outsource are mainly found involved doing violations.”
“Further, there is a need to make infrastructure changes. We need body scanners but each body scanner costs Rs 4 crore. Then we need to get meshes installed between inside and outside boundary walls of jails. To generate revenue, we have formed a prison board. The fund generated will be used to revamp the security in jails and welfare of prisoners,” added Randhawa.
The Ludhiana Central Jail has been hogging limelight for all wrong reasons in the recent past — be it the jail violence in June 2019, or the recoveries of mobiles and the involvement of jail inmates in the crimes being executed outside. Even the drug nexus is said to be running from inside the jail. In addition, recently the Division Number 7 police have booked a former assistant superintendent of Ludhiana Central Jail for providing mobile to an undertrial.
Talking about the inmates testing positive for Covid-19, the minister said, “About 30 undertrials lodged in central jail have tested positive. The major concern is that, these undertrials are those who have already been into 14-day quarantine twice. At first, the newly arrested accused are kept in brostal jail for 14 days. Thereafter, they are sent to a special cell in the jail for another 14 days. After that they are again tested for Covid-19 to check if they can be accommodated with other inmates or not. So these undertrials have tested positive after having been quarantined twice. We are making plans to manage this situation.”
Randhawa also said the staffers of jails have also been tested for Covid-19 and the results came to be negative.