6 highsecurity jails in Punjab to get CISF security by Julyend

SECURITY VIOLATIONS Capt orders department to install CCTV cameras inside jails to check smuggling of mobile phones and drugs

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab government on Monday decided to deploy the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) for checking and frisking at six of the 10 high-security jails in the state by July-end as part of its efforts to strengthen prison security.

The decision as taken at a high-level meeting chaired by chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh, who directed the jails department to coordinate with the central authorities to expedite the process of CSIF deployment.

The jails department is getting two companies of the CISF and plans to deploy a platoon each in six of the state’s high-security prisons.

CISF personnel will be posted in deori (corridor between two main gates of the jail), where currently frisking is done by either jail warders/matrons or by the Punjab Ex-servicemen Corporation (PESCO) jawans. Watchtowers on outer walls will continue to be manned by Punjab Police and Punjab Home Guards.

Expressing concern over security violations and sneaking of mobile phones and drugs etc into the state’s prisons, the CM ordered the jails department to ensure efficient working of all installed closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV) inside jails.

Earlier, the additional chief secretary, home, informed the CM that of the total 244 gangsters lodged in Punjab prisons, 86 are A-category. Since January 2017, more than 2,000 mobile phones had been confiscated from the inmates, while 389 cases had been filed against recovery of prohibited drugs from prisoners.

In another step to improve the prison system, the CM directed the jails department to explore the possibility of changing the recruitment rules to make it mandatory for the newly recruited deputy superintendents of police to undergo oneyear stint in jails before being promoted to the superintendent of police rank.