Mahrashtra jail department seeks immediate filling of senior posts

Speaking to The Indian Express, additional DG Sunil Ramanand, who is holding an additional charge of the jails department, said, “We have five posts of deputy inspector generals, and three are vacant. I have asked the home department to fill these posts as soon as possible. We have an acute crunch of officers.”

In May this year, additional DG Atulchandra Kulkarni who headed the jails department went to NIA on deputation and additional DG Ramanand was asked to take charge. In April this year, special inspector general of jails in south Maharashtra, Ankush Shinde, was appointed as Pimpri Chinchwad police commissioner and deputy IG Yogesh Desai, who heads the western region, was asked to take charge of the south region which includes Mumbai and Thane. Apart from western and southern region, Desai also looks after Marathwada area.

In Mantralaya, the jails department reported to additional chief secretary (appeals and security) Nitin Gadre. But in May, he was transferred as additional chief secretary of the general administration department and additional chief secretary (home) Anand Limaye then got the additional charge. The deputy secretary in charge of jails, Aniruddha Jevalikar, who moved all proposals was transferred to another department and Rahul Kulkarni looks after it now.

The paucity of officers has affected the overall functioning of the department. Limaye and Chief Secretary Manukumar Srivastava did not respond to messages and calls from this paper.