Bandwagon effect: Tihar on Facebook

The country’s biggest prison — Tihar Jail — today joined the IT bandwagon by logging in to social networking site Facebook.

The country’s biggest prison — Tihar Jail — today joined the IT bandwagon by logging in to social networking site Facebook.

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“We have launched our Facebook page today. Our page ID on this website is Central Jail Tihar,” said Sunil Gupta, spokesperson and law officer, Tihar Jail.

“Since we wanted to improve our performance and our day-to-day activities, we opted for Facebook, as there could be no better medium than this to interact with the masses. It was the idea of DG Prisons, Neeraj Kumar to join Facebook,” Gupta added.

“Tihar is a role model for prisons in other countries. Through Facebook, we will inform the public about our new plans, initiatives and also make the users aware about the existing activities being undertaken inside the prison premises. We will invite suggestions, reactions and views from people all over the country,” he said.

Along with other issues, the problem of over-population inside the prison premises has been brought to the notice of the masses in their Facebook page.

“In Delhi there are nine Central Jails at the Tihar campus and one District Jail at Rohini (North Delhi). These 10 jails have a sanctioned capacity to keep 6,250 inmates. However, against this, there remain, on an average, 10,500 prisoners lodged at any given time,” the Central Jail Tihar page read.

Amongst the government agencies to have joined these social networking sites are the Delhi Traffic Police and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

Gupta said they will also tweet. He said details on its factory products like namkeen and biscuits which are now very popular among the people in Delhi will also find a mention.

Meanwhile, former cricketer Madan Lal visited the Tihar Jail prisoners to motivate and them for a cricket championship held here on Tuesday.