Jail recruitment put on fast track

Ranchi, Feb. 20: The home department has speeded up the process of framing new recruitment rules for jail staff in an attempt to deal with the problem of acute shortage of employees at all 27 prisons of the state, including five central ones.

Speaking to The Telegraph, the newly appointed inspector-general (prison), Satendra Singh, said: "We are in the final stage of drafting rules for filling up vacant posts of warders, jailers and jail superintendents with due consent of the state personnel and finance department. We have expedited the process. The last recruitment drive had taken place in unified Bihar time (before 2000)."

The seriousness of the situation can be gauged from the fact that out of 1,500 sanctioned posts of warders in 27 jails, around 1,200 posts have been lying vacant for quite some time. At present, only about 300 warders are on the job. Of around 50 posts of jailers, half are empty while almost 50 per cent of 27 posts of jail superintendents too need to be filled up.

A couple of superintendents are holding dual charges while in many jails, magistrates have been deputed by the local administrations to discharge the duty of jail superintendents.

The two recent jail break-ins at Seraikela-Kharsawan and Chaibasa have only added to the urgency factor, not to forget that many of these prisons house hardcore Naxalites. The 27 jails have about 18,000 inmates, both undertrials and convicts, against the sanctioned capacity of 12,000.

"There is a need to fill up the vacancies at the earliest for better jail administration," admitted Singh.

The state home department has also decided to appoint doctors on contractual basis for deployment at the jails.

Not only staff, the prisons also lack doctors. At present, only a couple of jails have doctors ' Birsa Munda Central Jail in Ranchi have three, Hazaribagh jail and Ghaghidih Central Jail in Jamshedpur one each ' sent by the state health department. As a result, ailing inmates are required to be shifted to government hospitals for treatment, which calls for extra security arrangements as well as more expenditure on the part of the jail administration.

"While specialist doctors will be deputed at central prisons, other jails will have one doctor with basic MBBS degree each," Singh said.