Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Central prisons to install phone jammers

Special Correspondent

Thiruvananthapuram: The Government proposes to install jammers to prevent use of mobile telephones in the Central Prisons at Thiruvananthapuram, Kannur and Viyyur.

Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, while inaugurating the social forestry programme in the Thiruvananthapuram Central Prison by planting a sapling, said on Thursday that nobody would be allowed to create anarchy in prisons by breaking rules. At the same time, the Government wanted the prisoners to be treated in a humane manner in order to bring them back to the mainstream. Their problems would be sympathetically considered.

He promised to improve the basic facilities in prisons. New buildings would be constructed in Thiruvananthapuram and Kannur Central Prisons. Works on the prisons in Chittur and Hosdurg would get underway soon. Steps for setting up a Central Prison in Pathanamthitta were progressing.

The Government had also revised prisoners’ wages. Consent had been given for handing over half of it to their families. The Government would also reduce their sentence on the basis of the work they were putting in.

Some 2,000 saplings would be planted in the Thiruvananthpauram Central Prison compound under the social forestry programme. A 10-acre mango grove would be set up in Cheemeni with the help of the Agricultural University. The programme was expected to bring about a change of mind among the prisoners and further the goal of making them good citizens.

The Government was thinking of distributing beedis to the prisoners through the prison canteens.

Smoking cannot be ended through law. It had to be done by creating awareness, the Minister added. M.G.A. Raman, DGP and Baburaj, ADGP, Prisons attended the function.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Postings begin at Debt Relief Commission
Exhibition in foreign countries
Ratnakaran should quit, says BJP leader
Pay hike for KWA employees
Health activists to be posted in coastal wards
Central prisons to install phone jammers
Trade shows to promote handicrafts
Government urged to recover leased land
Thiruvananthapuram today

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu