Shortage of jail staff: Punjab to deploy employees from other depts, Chief secy tells HC

Chief secretary KAP Sinha has told Punjab and Haryana high court that immediate steps would be taken to deploy officials from other departments on a short-term basis to deal with the staff shortage in the state jails.

Sinha also told the court that the government would expedite and initiate the process of recruitment of permanent staff for the jails department.

Statement from the chief secretary came after ADGP (prisons), Arun Pal Singh apprised the court of the shortage of over 1,826 jail officials in the prisons department during a hearing of a plea on April 24.

Sinha appeared through video conferencing, following a court order, during the resumed hearing of the suo motu plea initiated in 2023 in connection with the interviews of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi.

Suo motu proceedings were initiated observing that such interviews tend to glorify crime and criminals and could have an adverse effect on impressionable minds. It was during these proceedings the court started monitoring the upgrading of jails’ infra in Punjab.

Sinha also submitted that in-principle approval for the purchase of the V-kavach jammers has been accorded by the state-level empowered committee in its meeting held on April 23. He also informed the court that a decision has been taken to install AI-based CCTV cameras in all the jails of the state, which have been found to be successful in capturing prohibited articles, including mobile phones, that are thrown inside the jail premises with the officers on duty getting immediate alerts.

The court, while posting the matter for further hearing on May 12, asked the chief secretary to appear through VC and further directed that an affidavit be filed by him indicating the progress and the status of the measures which have been put in place to augment the jail security and the timeline for those which are yet to be made operational. The affidavit should also set out the particulars of the measures jail-wise in all the jails in the state, it added.

The court summoned the chief secretary as it found that the state had failed to take steps to procure equipment for upgrading security in jails.

Many affidavits have been filed on behalf of the state but there has been a lack of progress in the different areas, the court said. Hence, the court remains ‘dissatisfied’ over the state’s efforts, it had said while summoning Sinha to explain why the measures which were suggested by the senior officers to streamline jail security have not been put in place.