Mysuru: Nov 24: Home Minister K?J?George said that he knew the plight of jail inmates as he had spent three days in a prison nearly 45 years ago.
“It helped me in understanding the plight of the prison inmates, as some of them were forced to remain behind bars for failure to pay the fine amount,” he said adding that after taking over the charge of Home Ministry, he has taken note of such convicts. However, it is a good development that generous organisations are helping by paying the fine amount,” he said.
In an attempt to win over the prisoners, by tuning them into intelligence personnel, Mr George appealed to them to share information on conspiracies behind bars.
He recalled the infamous jail break of prisoner Jaishankar from Parappana Agrahara jail in Bengaluru, that pushed the government into a tight spot.
George felt that it would have been foiled if the fellow inmates had brought the plan to the notice of the officials. “In the case of such prisoners, the inmates can share the information. The officials will maintain secrecy and also try to counsel such prisoners. If it turns out to be a wasteful exercise, such prisoners will be shifted to other jails,” he said.
The government is committed to protect human rights, including that of convicts. Some NGOs and other organisations too have been keeping track of the authorities concerned in this regard. Taking cognisance of such developments, the facilities inside jails are being improved and the recent one is the hike in food allowance for prisoners, besides reforms in health and basic infrastructure facilities for prisoners,” George said.
Comments
Add new comment