State staff gets weekends off, jail employees struggle for 1 day too

While the Maharashtra government has announced a five-day week for its employees working in Mantralaya, jail staff from police constables to jailers are yet to get

While the Maharashtra government has announced a five-day week for its employees working in Mantralaya, jail staff from police constables to jailers are yet to get their one day-off regularly. As jails are overcrowded by nearly four times its capacity, the jail staff have to compensate the manpower shortage by working on their off days.

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However, a recent circular by the inspector general (IG), prison, has made weekly off mandatory and has directed the superintendent of prison to take his prior permission before cancelling the weekly off of any staff.

HT has the copy of the circular dated February 28, 2020, issued by Deepak Pandey, IG, prisons, south Maharashtra.

The circular states the jail staffs don’t get their weekly off, which is their right and hence they don’t get time to be with their family and further resulting in mental and physical stress.

Pandey has directed that the circular would be applicable to all jails that come under his supervision including Arthur road, Thane, Taloja, Byculla, Kalyan Aadharwadi, Alibaug, Sawantwadi, Sindhadurg, Ratnagiri and Byculla women prison.

“Weekly offs are mandatory to every employee working in the prison. Only in extreme circumstances, where the service of the staff is required, the superintendent of police should take permission from the IG office [to revoke offs],” added Pandey.

Earlier too, the prison staff had appealed for their weekly off and then IG, Rajvardhan Sinha had ordered the SP’s of all jails to give them the weekly off. But it was not followed.

Recently, the wives of the staff took a protest to Mantralaya demanding the weekly off as they don’t get time to spend with the family.

While the constables are happy with the move, senior officers, mostly superintendent’s of these jails, are not happy with the IG’s diktat and have aired concerns about the security of prisons.

“Every Central jail is short-staffed by least 100 to 150 people. If we give weekly off to everyone, there may not be enough people to man the jails,” said the officer from Maharashtra jail.

At present, the Arthur Road jail has a staff of 169 police personal. The jail, which has a capacity of 804 inmates, currently has about 3,800 inmates. Similarly, Thane Central jail with 254 police personnel, has a capacity of 1,104 inmates. However, it currently has 4,400 inmates.

“For example, if Arthur road jail has 169 police personal, at least 19 staffs are on sick leave or paid leave. Among the remaining 150 are divided in day and night shift. At least 10 to 15 police are busy in the newly-formed e-cell control room. Only 50 to 60 personnels are left to maintain a crowd of 3,000 to 4,000 criminals. As per the jail manual, for every six inmates, there should be one constable. But at present, one constable looks after 100 to 250 inmates,” said a senior officer.