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Journalism of Courage
The new prison, spread over five acres and constructed at a cost of Rs 35 crore, can house 3,000 male and 500 female prisoners in its 15 spacious wards. Each has its own toilets, kitchen and a dinning hall. It is expected to end the huge problem of overcrowding at Birsa. At present, Birsa jail houses 3,037 prisoners. Its capacity is for only 604 inmates.
The chief minister8217;s departure to New Delhi has given officials some more time. Munda had planned to shift about 200 prisoners on June 9 itself in the first phase of shifting. These would be inmates who have less than three years to complete their term.
But sources say it will be at least a couple of months before the new quarters are ready to move in.
MUNDA8217;S other gesture has been his declaration to free undertrials who are too poor to engage a lawyer to get bail. Most of them face petty charges varying from selling illicit liquor to possessingillegal arms.
Tota Oran is one of the 81 such undertrials in Birsa Munda jail8212;perhaps the highest number of such poor Dalit and adivasi undertrials in any prison. He watches others being ferried to the court. But in the one year that he has been here8212;he was arrested on May 1, 2004,8212;his turn has never come.
8216;8216;To hire a lawyer, you have to have money. I had none,8217;8217; he says simply. Neither did his friends nor family as a result of which he never applied for bail.
But the state government8217;s decision has changed all that. The men in charge of this scheme are state secretary Home J.B. Tubid and IG Prison S.P. Kushwaha.
