The prisons department first paid the DDA Rs 7.79 crore in 2003, with a request to allot land to build another prison complex, officials said. (File)Long-pending plans to build a new prison in Narela have finally gained momentum with a 40-acre parcel of land being handed over to the prisons department.
There are three prisons in Delhi at present, Tihar, Mandoli and Rohini. Officials said the total capacity of the three complexes is 10,026 persons but 19,669 convicted and undertrial prisoners are housed in these at present.
Sources said Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena, who is also the chairperson of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), ordered the authority to handover the land allotted for the jail on June 8 and report compliance in a week’s time. The land parcel was handed over on June 15.
The prisons department first paid the DDA Rs 7.79 crore in 2003, with a request to allot land to build another prison complex, officials said. Sources said the matter was pending since 2018 because of unsettled payments issues between the two departments.
Best of Express Premium
“In 2018, DDA raised a revised demand for Rs 128 crore for land identified in Narela. The payment was made by prisons department in 2020. Subsequently, DDA raised the demand of Rs 29.88 crore as interest on delayed payment from July 2018 to March 2020. Meanwhile, DDA moved a proposal for relocation of already allotted land for the District Jail apart from District Court, Police Line and Police Training Institute. The L-G overruled this proposal for reallocation…,” an official said.
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
