Nagpur: The Yerwada prison in Pune has been equipped with a baggage scanner to check smuggling of illegal objects inside the jail besides 55 CCTVs to keep a tab on the activities of inmates there, the Maharashtra Assembly was informed on Thursday.
Replying to Vinayak Nimhan of the Congress and others, Minister of State for Home, Satej Patil said that a massive upgradation of security in prisons was taken up and accordingly Mumbai, Taloja (Navi Mumbai) and Yerwada jails were provided with modern gadgets to deal with unlawful activities of inmates.
He said a total of 232 CCTVs will be installed in these jails. About 30 walkie-talkie sets, one mobile detector and 12 hand metal detectors have been provided to Yerwada.
Also, the government was planning to fill 563 vacant posts in jails during 2013-2015. About 498 posts will be filled this year, including 92 in Yerwada jail, Patil said.
In his written reply, the minister said that one of the inmates --Prahlad Waman Veer-- committed suicide on October 6 by cutting his throat by a window iron bar in Yerwada jail.
To another question, he told the House that a total of 650 prisoners have not returned to jail after finishing their leave or parole.
