Other States - Orissa   

Three jails to go hi-tech soon

CUTTACK: The State government has decided to introduce videoconference facility in at least three prominent jails by the end of March.

In an affidavit filed in the High Court recently, the government informed that in the first phase, the facility would be in place at Choudwar, Bhubaneswar and Berhampur jails. Later, it would be set up in three more jails – Baripada, Sambalpur and Rourkela.

In January, the court directed the government to provide the facility in jails and had also asked it to file an affidavit indicating the steps being taken in this regard.

The affidavit said that a high-level meeting was convened recently under the chairmanship of the IG Prison and the Electronics Corporation of India Limited of Hyderabad was selected to install the facility.

“Accordingly, the proposal of the IG has been approved and the latter has been instructed to take all possible steps for installation of videoconferencing facility by March 31, 2008, positively in the three jails in the first,” the affidavit said.

Upon installation of the facility, under-trial prisoners need not be escorted to the courts for trial.

The judges would hear them by sitting in the courtrooms while the under-trial prisoners would answer them from their respective jails. The facility would be provided under the national e-courts project that was launched in June last.

Under the programme, all judicial officials would be supplied with laptops, which would have well-structured database and better connectivity.

The system would expedite the criminal justice system as the witnesses at various places could be examined through videoconferencing.

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