Post News Network
Jharsuguda, April 28: Deprived of basic human amenities, the inmates of the sub-jail here are virtually spending their days as sub-human beings.
Running contrary to the claims of the state government that the living conditions in jails are good, the prisoners of the sub-jail here alleged that they are forced to stay like animals in a clumsy state due to space crunch. While there is a provision for 146 prisoners – 139 men and seven women – in the jail, the actual number of them is well over 250 at most of the time in a year. Extremely bad quality of the food further adds to their woes.
Though 20 years have passed since Jharsuguda became a district, this sub-jail was not developed as a district jail with better infrastructure and facilities.
As the pace of industrialization grew in the district, so grew the population. The crime graph also followed an upward trend with the influx of people and more people started going to the jail.
Even though the departmental authorities had apprised the police housing department of the problems related to space crunch, no measure has been taken to sort out the issue till date.
However, when contacted, assistant jailer of the sub-jail Digambar Adha said the housing department (police) had built an extension unit on the jail premises to house at least 60 prisoners. However, as the unit has some construction flaws so far as the security is concerned, it cannot be used.
According to sources, the jail should have 24-hour security system on the watch tower. But, it is not followed.
Apart from space crunch and slack security measures, the prisoners also complain of several other problems. They said the food they are getting in their breakfast, lunch and dinner are of very poor quality. They get ‘upma’ made of flattened rice or semolina in breakfast. In lunch and dinner, they are given cooked rice with dal.
Vegetables are never used in preparation of food. When the prisoners raise their voice against the low quality food, the authorities harass them on several pretexts.
When Adha was contacted, he admitted provision of poor quality food to the jail inmates. He said they were instructed to provide rice meant for the BPL category people to the jail inmates. That apart, the money given by the government towards food for the inmates is not sufficient even to supply them an average quality of food.
The government provides Rs 60 per prisoner per day towards food including the cost of fuel. It is not possible to provide three meals to a person in a day using the money.
He further added that the jail authorities have nothing to with the quality of food as a 10-member committee of the prisoners manages the food provided in the jail.
The prisoners further allege that some of the inmates get food from their families. The family members bribe the jail staff to supply outside food to the inmates related to them.
However, Adha refuted the allegations. He pointed out that every month the district and sessions judge visits the sub-jail and interact with the inmates about their problems in the jail. That apart, a team including the district collector, superintendent of police and district and sessions judge visits the jail once in every three month.
Adhda further added that a doctor has been appointed in the jail on a contractual basis to check up health of the inmates regularly.
