Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has warned that the government will not brook any excesses or illegal activities in jails.
“Jails are correctional centres, and the job of jail officials is not to inflict punishment but to help the convicts and the undertrials to correct themselves,” said the Chief Minister. He was inaugurating the District Jail Complex at Manthakkad, near Malampuzha, on Tuesday. The Chief Minister reiterated that officials who collude with those who violate the jail laws would not get any protection from the government.
Mr. Vijayan said that the approach of jail officials towards the inmates should change. “You should become models for the jail inmates through your attitude and behavior,” he said. The Chief Minister said that a project to link the jails with the courts would begin next month as part of the modernization of jails. He said ₹24 crore would be spent to link 54 jails in the State with the courts.
He said efforts were on to set up a Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) communication network for major jails in the State at a cost of ₹2.29 crore. The project is expected to be completed by October. Surveillance cameras will be fixed in jails by spending ₹4.6 crore as part of enhancing the security. As much as ₹17.25 crore was spent for the welfare of jail inmates and ₹38.5 crore for modernisation of jails after the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government assume power in the State. Mr. Vijayan said that mobile jammers, body scanners, and linear emission detectors would be set up in jails as part of enhancing the security.
Minister for Cultural Affairs A.K. Balan presided over the function. Public Works Department (PWD) zonal superintending engineer Saijamol N. Jacob presented a report. Prisons and Correctional Services director-general Rishiraj Singh, District Panchayat president K. Santha Kumari, District Collector D. Balamurali, District Police Superintendent G. Sivavikram, Malampuzha block panchayat president K.P. Shaija, District Panchayat member K. Rajan, Malampuzha grama panchayat president Indira Ramachandran, and North Zone Prisons Deputy Inspector General Sam Thankayyan were present.