Prisoners in Uttar Pradesh jails can now look forward to better and modern amenities behind bars in the days to come.
They will soon be able to watch informative and educational programmes on LED TVs, listen to bhajans on the latest public address systems, enjoy food hygienically prepared with the help of mechanised tools and have healthy RO water. The Yogi Adityanath government has sanctioned funds and initiated measures to provide these facilities in the jails, besides improving the administration.
The inmates will also be physically safe in jails equipped with latest firefighting tools to deal with any fire outbreaks. Besides, they will be overseen by officials and staff who will be well connected through modern EPABX-based intercom systems.
In its latest effort, the state government has sanctioned ₹98.49 lakh for setting up an effective and reliable EPBAX-based intercom system in 54 prisons of the state of varying capacities, ranging from 16 lines to 32 lines.
The 54 prisons where the intercom facility will now be installed include central jails at Agra, Bareilly and Fatehgarh, district jails of Meerut, Varanasi, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Gorakhpur, Fatehgarh, Pratapgarh and Kaushmabi, besides Nari Bandi Niketan at Lucknow.
{{/usCountry}}The 54 prisons where the intercom facility will now be installed include central jails at Agra, Bareilly and Fatehgarh, district jails of Meerut, Varanasi, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Gorakhpur, Fatehgarh, Pratapgarh and Kaushmabi, besides Nari Bandi Niketan at Lucknow.
{{/usCountry}}The intercom will enable better communication within the prisons where jammers installed to check illegal use of mobile phones by inmates often impact internal communication of prison officials and staff.
Besides, ₹1.32 crore has been sanctioned for procurement of water mist and fire-fighting system in 40 prisons and 185 six-kg capacity fire extinguishers for 16 jails spread across the state, said additional director general (prisons) Chandra Prakash.
He said the sanction had been conveyed by joint secretary (prisons) Surya Prakash Singh Sanger through separate missives dated September 25.
As per the plan, the water mist and CFR fighting system will be procured at a cost of over ₹1.17 crore for 40 jails, including district jails of Mathura, Jhansi, Fatehpur, Pratapgarh,Chitrakoot, Gonda, Sonbhadra, sub prisons of Kaushambi and Mahoba, besides the model jail of Lucknow.
The 16 jails, where the fire extinguishers will be provided at a cost of ₹15.36 lakh, include district jails of Meerut, Mau, Mathura, Ghaziabad, Kaushambi, Chitrakoot, Varanasi and Sonbhadra.
“The prisons already have some firefighting equipment and these new ones will further strengthen their capacities to deal with fire outbreaks,” the ADG (Prisons) added.
The state government has also sanctioned installation of around 900 LED TVs in 64 jails at a cost of ₹3.37 crore, added the official.
As per the plans, 30 LED TVs will be installed in Lucknow and Gautam Budh Nagar jails each while Bareilly Central and district jails will get 20 LEDs each. For Moradabad, Azamgarh, Etawah, Varanasi, Ghaziabad, Meerut, Sitapur and Kheri jails, 25 LED TVs each will be installed.
Other plans in the process of implementation include equipping kitchen jails with modern tools to knead flour and prepare chapatis on a large-scale, besides embellishing them with vegetable cutters and smoke absorbing chimneys. In the first phase, 25 jail kitchens are being mechanized. In the days to come, all 71 jails of the state will be covered.
Besides, around 250 regular metal detectors and 140 deep search metal detectors, the prisons are being equipped with public address systems and RO water plants under the state government’s initiative.