Prison dept sets up board to deal with transfer requests of staff

CHANDIGARH Punjab prison department has set up a ‘jail establishment board’ that will deal with transfers and postings of the jail officials, in a move that is aimed at injecting transparency and ducking political interference.

Additional director general of police (ADGP-jails) Rohit Choudhary on Wednesday held the first meeting of the board in which 116 transfer applications of the jail officials such as head warders and warders were considered by the board comprising other senior jail officers.

“The transfer orders will be issued immediately after the lifting of election code. Transfers were approved after considering officials’ previous records, vacancies in the department and administration of the jail department,” the ADGP said.

The jail department has also constituted a ‘jail employees working improvement committee’ comprising one representative each from all jails, in the rank of head warders and warders. The objective, the ADGP said, is to involve lower rung of jail staff in decision and policy making for the improvement of working condition and jail administration.

After introducing the system of evaluating performance of jail superintendents/deputy superintendents and fixing targets to improve the working of jails, the department has issued appreciation letters to four jail superintendents. Choudhary said that 208 officers/officials have been awarded class-1 commendation certificates with cash rewards for their sincerity towards their duties, while six officers/officials were dismissed and six suspended for dereliction of duty.

In last three months, 433 mobile phones and 29 SIM cards (all issued to fictitious people) were recovered from different prisons of the state.