Ranchi: Members of Jharkhand Assembly
today expressed serious concern over mobile calls originating
from jails in the state to certain persons, while stating that
relatives had to pay for meeting prisoners.
Bringing up the issue during a call attention motion
in the House, Congress member Rajesh Ranjan demanded
installation of jammers to block phone calls from prisons.
Asking the government to ensure functioning of jammers
around jails, Speaker C P Singh said "Even I got a phone call
from (Birsa Munda central) jail."
The speaker also referred to reports how prisoners did
not get their quota of 225 gram of rice and 225 gram of flour
and had to pay per square-feet to sleep.
JMM MLA Paulis Surin, who contested the 2009 assembly
polls from prison, said that menu cards were concealed in
Simdega jail from relatives, who were made to pay Rs ten by
prison staff to meet their relatives.
Former chief minister Madhu Koda?s wife Gita Koda said
that prison staffers allegedly charge Rs 50 to Rs 100 per
prisoner for relatives to meet them.
BJP MLA Ramchandra Baitha also made the same charge.
CPI (ML-Liberation) MLA Vinod Kumar Singh demanded a
hike in the daily wages of prisoners sentenced to rigorous
imprisonment.
Prisoners received Rs 14 now, he said.
The speaker asked HRD Minister Baijnath Ram to make
surprise checks to find irregularities happening in jails.
Ram assured he house that the government had taken
note of all matters raised in the house regarding prisons.
PTI
