Process to construct 14 additional jails with 15,000 inmate capacity underway: govt to HC
Most of the prisons in the state are facing overcrowding with 36 prisons housing over 42,000 prisoners against their capacity of 23,217.
3 min read
The state government has informed the Bombay High Court that it is taking efforts to construct 14 more jails with the capacity to accommodate 15,000 inmates (File)The state government has informed the Bombay High Court that it is taking efforts to construct 14 more jails with the capacity to accommodate 15,000 inmates “keeping in mind the future needs of at least 20-30 years.” The reply was submitted recently by state Chief Secretary (CS) Manu Kumar Srivastava. Most of the prisons in the state are facing overcrowding with 36 prisons housing over 42,000 prisoners against their capacity of 23,217.
The government said the planning and tender processes for the construction of additional jails at Ahmednagar, Baramati, Palghar, Hingoli, Gondia, Bhusaval, along with two additional prisons on the existing lands of Yerawada (Pune) and Thane central prisons are underway and same would increase the capacity of inmates jails by 9,549. The additional jails at Yerawada and Thane will house 3,000 inmates each, it was submitted.
Moreover, six more prisons are proposed to be constructed in Turbhe (Mumbai), Alibaug, Satara, Sangli, Nanded and Beed. However, lands are yet to be made available for the same. It will increase the capacity of inmates by at least 6,000. The government said that the planning for five more open prisons on the existing land for prisons in Yerawada, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Amravati and Akola (open prisons for females) are already under consideration.
The government also informed the court that additional toilets and bathroom facilities are being provided to the inmates to ensure hygienic conditions and maintain privacy.
Srivastava, in his affidavit submitted before a division bench of Justice Ajey S Gadkari and Justice Milind N Jadhav on November 11 said that ‘earnest’ steps are being taken on recommendations by HC appointed committee under a retired High Court judge Justice S Radhakrishnan including measures to reduce overcrowding of jails.
On March 1, 2017, a bench led by Justice Abhay S Oka (currently a Supreme Court judge) passed a slew of directions in the PIL and ordered the constitution of the panel.
The state also said that eight new barracks having a capacity of 200 inmates have been constructed in Mumbai Central Prison (Arthur Road Jail), and construction of three high-security cells, which can house 18 inmates is under progress.
Referring to the availability of toilets and bathrooms in prisons, the affidavit stated that as decided in 2018, the construction of 71 new bathrooms and 68 new bathing platforms across jails in the state is over and 137 new toilets have been built in central prisons.
Out of an additional requirement of 256 toilets in district prisons, 145 new toilets were constructed, while 111 could not be completed due to space constraints.
In his reply, CS Srivastava said that “due to scarcity of space in Mumbai” some of the directions of HC could not be sufficiently complied with and the Covid-19 pandemic caused further delay. However, the government is ‘sensitive to the social issues’ in the matter.
On November 14, the HC permitted advocate Uday Warunjikar for the petitioner to submit further suggestions after perusing the affidavit along with the compliance reports submitted by the HC registry in the matter.
After Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni for the state government submitted that a meeting of all stakeholders concerned for jail reforms will be convened in the last week of this month and he is “optimistic about the fruitful result”, the bench posted further hearing in the matter to December 13.
You May Like
