Union minister of state for home affairs, Ajay Kumar Mishra, on Thursday attended a scheduled Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) event at Mahipalpur. The development comes despite pressure by the opposition parties demanding that the central government sack the minister.
Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra has been booked along with others by the Uttar Pradesh police for allegedly running over farmers in Lakhmipur Kheri on Sunday.
The minister addressed the police and prison officers from across the country as part of BPRD’s 7th conference of heads of prisons of all states and Union territories, with a theme of “preparing a decadal road map for the prisons and correctional services”.
However, the media was blocked from covering the event.
According to a statement issued by the BPRD, Mishra emphasised during his inaugural address that the gathering in the conference i.e. 75 senior prison officers from 25 States and four Union territories, is the right platform to deliberate on the issues and frame a policy which will have a wider perspective and wider acceptability.
Mishra said the “main challenge for reintegrating inmates into the mainstream of society is providing a safe environment to them. Jail systems must have provisions for providing training and skill development for people living inside prisons and aftercare programmes.”
{{/usCountry}}Mishra said the “main challenge for reintegrating inmates into the mainstream of society is providing a safe environment to them. Jail systems must have provisions for providing training and skill development for people living inside prisons and aftercare programmes.”
{{/usCountry}}He further added that the “concept of e-prisons saves time and makes the process easier for further associating with the courts. Another important aspect of e-prisons is e-mulakaat, which has made the process easy for inmates to contact their families.”
Earlier, on Wednesday, the BPRD hinted that the event was put on hold.
Eight people, including four farmers and a local journalist Raman Kashyap, died on Sunday in violence that broke out when at least one car, allegedly driven by the minister’s son, hit protesting farmers, prompting an angry crowd to burn two vehicles and lynch the occupants of one of the vehicles. Farmers have sought the arrest of the minister and his son. The minister has denied the charges.