The Sunday Guardian

‘tihar is one of my most satisfying assignment­s’

Ajay Kashyap, Director General of Prisons, Delhi, says that Tihar jail is running many programmes to rehabilita­te and reform inmates.

- DIBYENDU MONDAL NEW DELHI IANS

The Tihar jail houses over 10,000 inmates and is considered one of the largest prisons in Asia. The Sunday Guardian spoke to Ajay Kashyap, Director General of Prisons, Delhi, who takes this as his most satisfying assignment. Excerpts: Q: What are the major challenges that you have come across as the head of the Tihar administra­tion in the last one and a half years? A: Managing a prison like Tihar, I have come across four major challenges. First is the challenge of meeting the problem of overcrowdi­ng of the jails. Secondly, keeping the prisoners occupied in a gainful and productive way, which is being done through various programmes of occupation­al avenues and skill developmen­t courses. The third challenge is to provide the poor and illiterate with legal aid as they are the ones who require it more than the others. The fourth challenge is working with mental depression and helping the inmates overcome mental depression, because as soon as a person lands up in prison after going through the long process of the criminal justice system, beginning with the arrest by the police, custodial interrogat­ion, denial of bail, etc., there is a tendency to develop mental illness and we are working to help them.

Q: Tihar has been engaging their inmates into doing a lot productive work. What major initiative­s have been taken in the recent past to utilise their time here in the prison well? A: Yes, we are utilising the time they are here with us, to reform and rehabilita­te the prisoners, helping them to reintegrat­e back into society once they are out. Because if we do not do that, then we are basically not going to achieve any results in reducing repeat offences. The Tihar administra­tion is working with the inmates to skill them in several areas. We have more than 32 factories that are working in different jails, such as carpentry, LED factory, perfume making, sanitary napkins factory for women in the women’s jail, baking, etc., and they are paid according to the minimum rate of skilled, unskilled and semi skilled rates prescribes by the government. Apart from this, for skill developmen­t we have more than 64 programmes in different jails, in which people can learn skills like baking, painting, fine arts, music, dance, drama. Tihar also has a full-fledged Tihar School of Fine Arts, where inmates can learn art and sculpture, dance, drama, music, etc.

As a measure of encouragem­ent what I have done is that I have made it possible for them to send their work in exhibition­s for sale. So some of these paintings are getting sold in the market and as a matter of incentive 50% of the revenue earned from the sale of a painting goes to the inmate’s bank account. So there is a direct incentive for them to learn. Secondly, we are also encouragin­g and making partnershi­p with government agencies, like Delhi’s judicial academy has given us the contract to decorate their entire building by paintings made by the Tihar inmates. These are being taught to them so that they are skilfully better off to fend for themselves when they are out. Also, this keeps them occupied and therefore they will not be prone to join gangs and do in-disciplina­ry activities within the jail.

Q: Earlier this week, you inaugurate­d a yoga programme for the jail inmates. If you could throw some light on it.

A: Yoga and meditation help a lot in tackling mental health. So on Wednesday we initiated a prison wide programme to teach yoga and train our inmates as yoga teachers. This is being done in partnershi­p with Moraji Desai Institute of Yoga and an MOU was signed last year, 30 November. Two types of courses will be offered under this, the foundation course and the yoga trainer course to teach yoga. It is a sustainabl­e and an impactful project. But it is also a part of the bigger vision of reducing the number of mental illness cases in the prison.

Q: You mentioned about overcrowdi­ng of prisons and it is a fact that prisons are overcrowde­d. How are you tackling this problem?

A: As a first measure what we did was to release people who were languishin­g in jails despite getting bail because they did not have the money to pay for the surety. So we tied up with NGOS and civil society, who agreed to pay for their bail amount. Through this process in the first batch we released about 350 inmates. And overall some 1,000 inmates have been released on bail, with the help of this initiative. However, the main issue is that the state has to augment the facilities here. When I came here I did a survey of the assets we had available and I saw some of the prison structures were more than 50 years old, and as per government norms we could refurbish and renovate them, but instead of just retrofitti­ng them, I gave a proposal to raze these structures (barrack accommodat­ion) to the ground and go for modern amenities and modern constructi­on which would be multi-level and which would be planned right from scratch, having the required undergroun­d infrastruc­ture in terms of sewage, water supply, etc. Plus the living accommodat­ion will be according to the expected norms of the United Nations and the EU. Apart from this, we have also started the full operation of the Mandawali prison and some 4,000 prisoners will be shifted there. Q: Several times we come across news that banned items like tobacco etc., are being smuggled into the prison. What security enhancemen­t is being done to take care of such things? A: Certain items that are otherwise okay in normal society are contraband in the prison. Like mobile phones and tobacco. And yes, there have been cases where these banned items were found. What happens is that when the inmates are going to court or hospital outside, sometimes they smuggle in these contraband items in their body cavities. We are trying to strengthen our security system. At present we have a three-tier security system, which is the highest level of security anywhere in the country. We are also looking towards technologi­cal aid and support to strengthen our screening of movements in and outside the jails. Apart from this, we have also got an approval for installati­on of a uniform and state of the art CCTV project in all the 16 prisons across Tihar by October this year. This will not only help us keep a tab on the prisoners, but also on our own staff who may be indulging in malpractic­es.

Q: There have been reports that a dog squad is being planned for Tihar. Is that so?

A: Yes, recently we have got two dogs from the CRPF, on lease. We are examining their efficiency and their effectiven­ess and if it is a good experiment then I will go for creating a dog squad in our prison system. Maybe, we will have a dog squad of 40 dogs, depending on how it works out.

Q: The new Jail Manual has also been put in place prepared under your supervisio­n. Can you talk about the new jail manual?

A: The new jail manual was notified in October last year and brought into force from January this year. We are in the process of implementi­ng the provisions of the new jail manual. The earlier jail manual was incomplete and outdated. It did not have many things which have evolved over time, like the legislatio­n about disability, mental health, etc. In the new jail manual we have brought all this up to date. The new jail manual also revised the dietary requiremen­ts according to WHO norms. So the new jail manual emphasises on reformatio­n, rehabilita­tion and reintegrat­ion, which was totally missing in the earlier one.

Q: So far how has this experience been for you? Is it the most challengin­g assignment of your career? How different is it from normal policing?

A: No, it is not the most challengin­g one. The most challengin­g was the one when I went for UN peacekeepi­ng. But I would rate this as one of the topmost satisfying assignment­s. As far as how different it is from normal policing, I took six months to first familiaris­e myself with the domain of work here. Because it is very complex and it is under judicial scrutiny to an extent which I have never seen earlier. Prison is very highly under the judicial scrutiny of the higher courts. A number of directives, a number of interventi­ons, a number of suggestion­s come from the higher judiciary and you have to act on them very quickly. So this is a dimension which keeps you on your toes and makes you more broad-minded in receiving stakeholde­rs’ inputs.

money laundering, the knowledge of the transactio­n and the documents is the material informatio­n and it always lies only in the personal knowledge of the accused person. Therefore, there is a ground for granting the accused person the custody,” Magistrate Sharma said. The court agreed with ED that if any transactio­n disclosed a new case, then the offence required a separate investigat­ion. However, it denied the ED plea seeking seven-day custodial interrogat­ion and said two days are enough for the agency to question Khaitan. Watching the Republic Day parade this year reminded me how a recent Public Interest Litigation (PIL) claimed that certain castes are not considered for recruitmen­t for the elite force of the President’s Bodyguard (PBG).

The PBG is the oldest surviving mounted unit and the senior most regiment of the Indian Army, and except for the members of the martial races, others are not “entertaine­d” for entry in this impressive contingent. A

PIL filed in the Punjab & Haryana High Court has made serious allegation­s about the exclusion of certain castes from the process of recruiting PBGS. The whole issue has now come under the judicial scanner. Only, Ahirs, Jat Sikhs, Hindu Jats, Rajputs and Marathas are the castes that are apparently a part of this contingent, according to the petition.

As the petition has challenged the recruitmen­t process in the country’s highest Constituti­onal office, the P&H High Court has asked the Additional Solicitor-general (ASG) of India to respond. Justice Rajan Gupta has fixed the case for further hearing as the ASG has sought instructio­ns from the Union of India. The PIL has been filed by Manish Dayma of Gurugram (Haryana) against the Centre and other respondent­s. He has challenged an advertisem­ent/notice dated 12 August 2017, which was published in a vernacular newspaper, on the ground that the President’s Bodyguard recruitmen­t advertisem­ent had “excluded” certain castes for applying for the posts. Justice Gupta, on a previous hearing, had asserted that the Bench was not inclined to issue notice at the current stage “as authentici­ty of the notice was required to be verified”.

‘We released people who were languishin­g in jails despite getting bail because they did not have the money to pay for the surety. So we tied up with NGOS and civil society, who agreed to pay for their bail amount. Overall some 1,000 inmates have been released on bail, with the help of this initiative. However, the main issue is that the state has to augment the facilities here. We could refurbish and renovate the prison structures, but instead OF JUST RETROFITTI­NG THEM, I GAVE A PROPOSAL TO raze these structures to the ground and go for modern amenities and constructi­on.’

The present President’s Bodyguard (PBG) regiment is the successor of the Governor General’s Bodyguards of the British Raj. According to Sumit Walia, a noted military affairs writer, the PBG is the oldest surviving mounted unit and the senior most regiment of the Indian Army. In his well-researched piece in the Indian Defence Review, Walia says that the first form of PBG (then known as GGBG) was raised by Governor Warren Hastings in September 1773. Hastings handpicked 50 troopers from the “Moghal Horse”, which was raised in 1760 by local Sirdars—sirdars Mirza Shahbaz Khan and Sirdar Khan Tar Beg.

In the same year, Raja Cheyt Singh of Benaras provided another 50 troopers that took the strength of the unit to

100. The first commander of the unit was Captain Sweeny Toone, an officer of the East Indian Company, (EIC) who had Lt Samuel Black as his subaltern.

The GGBG was the only Corps of cavalry in the Bengal presidency till 1777, when two Regiments of Cavalry were transferre­d to the EIC by Nawab of Oudh. Both the regiments were raised in 1776.

The President’s Bodyguard title kept on changing with the passage of time:

* 1773-1780: The Governor’s Troops of Moghals. Other titles in use were Troops of Bodyguard, Governor’s

Troops of Bodyguards, Troops of Horse Guards, Troops of Black Cavalry, Body Troop. * 1784: Governor General’s Bodyguards (GGBG). * 1859: His Excellency the Viceroy’s Bodyguards. * 1944: 44th Divisional Reconnaiss­ance Squadron (GGBG). * 1946: Governor General’s Bodyguard.

* 1947: After Independen­ce, the unit got split between Governor General’s Bodyguard, India & Governor General’s Bodyguard, Pakistan. * 1950: The President’s Bodyguard, India. In Pakistan the title remained GGBG till 1956.

Before Independen­ce, there were three more bodyguard units, one for each Presidency—madras, Bombay and Bengal. These units were called Governor’s Bodyguard

(and not Governor General’s Body Guards). All these units were disbanded in 1947. The GGBG first saw action in 177374 when it was deployed against Sanyasis—a band that ravaged the countrysid­e in the guise of mendicants. Its next campaign was against Rohillas in April 1774 in the battle of St George, where the Rohillas were defeated completely. The Bodyguard was also present during the 3rd Mysore

War (1790-92) against Tipu Sultan. During this campaign it successful­ly thwarted an assassinat­ion attempt on the life of Governor General Lord Cornwallis. In 1801, a detachment consisting of one Native Officer and 26 other ranks went to Egypt to provide riders for an experiment­al unit of horse artillery. It marched for 120 miles in the desert in the height of summer. All their horses died and they had to place the guns on camels. The Bodyguard detachment never saw action in Egypt as Alexandria had capitulate­d by the time that they arrived there.

The PBG has participat­ed in many actions and won several awards. At present, the PBG cavalry regiment is considered as the senior-most in the order of precedence of the units of the Indian Army. The primary role of the President’s Bodyguard is to escort and protect the President of India. That is why the regiment is based in the Rashtrapat­i Bhavan in New Delhi. It is equipped as a mounted unit, with horses for ceremonies at the presidenti­al palace and armoured vehicles for use in combat. The personnel of the regiment are also trained as paratroope­rs and nominally are expected to lead in airborne assaults in the role of pathfinder­s.

Recruitmen­t to the PBG is extremely tough. All recruits are apparently from martial races of Ahirs, Jat Sikhs,

Hindu Jats, Rajputs and Marathas. Before final selection, a thorough check is done by the Intelligen­ce Bureau and the Military Intelligen­ce into their background.

But now it has to be seen whether the President Kovind, being a Dalit, will be able to ask the defence authoritie­s that “fit candidates” from all castes be considered for entry in the PBG.

Man Mohan can be contacted at rovingedit­or@gmail.com

 ??  ?? Ajay Kashyap, Director General of Prisons, Delhi
Ajay Kashyap, Director General of Prisons, Delhi

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