Free medicines to UP prisoners’ kin
LUCKNOW : Elderly parents of Sheru Nishad, who is lodged in Naini Central Jail, Prayagraj, for past two years, were lying unattended at their home in their illness.
They were neither able to get medical consultation nor medication for the past many months.
On the request of Sheru, the Naini Central Jail authorities send a jail warder to his parents to know their wellness, provided them medical consultation over video conferencing with doctors in Naini jail and handed them over free medicine packet.
Later, Sheru was made to talk to his parents over phone from the jail to know their wellness.
Similarly, Chandan, who is lodged in Sonbhadra district jail for past 20 months, was worried for his old mother staying alone in his village. His mother was suffering with lungs problem and was unable to go at doctor’s clinic due to the age factor.
The authorities of Sonbhadra district jail send a warder to her house and handed over a packet of medicine free of cost after getting her consulted with a doctor over phone.
UP prisons headquarters spokesman Santosh Kumar Verma said these are not the only cases but as many as four prisons have started this service of providing medical assistance and medicines to prisoners’ parents and family members, who are seriously ill and suffering from Covid-19 infection, at their doorstep. “We have provided medicines for Covid-19 positive people on the same lines,” he added.
He said this service is initially operational at Prayagraj based Naini Central Jail, Sonbhadra, Firozabad and Mathura district jails. Moreover, the service of allowing prisoners to interact with their family members over phone have been started at all jails as meeting with prisoners at jails has been stopped for last one year to curb spreading of Covid-19 infections among prisoners, he said
Kumar said soon the jail authorities are planning to start similar service at all 71 jails across the state and keep a devoted team of jail personnel for this purpose after giving them training for it.
Meanwhile, the jail authorities are also focused on maintaining hygiene and cleanliness inside the jails to curb spreading of any infection in the state jails where over 1.10 lakh prisoners remain lodged at a time.
At present, 45 temporary jails had been made operational to keep new prisoners there for 14 days of isolation before shifting them to permanent jails.