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New jail to be inaugurated

By Prashant Pandey

NEW DELHI MAY 31. A new jail to be inaugurated at the high-security Tihar Central Jail complex here on June 6 will be used to lodge persons detained under preventive sections of the law. The jail authorities feel that with the opening of the new jail their job would become easier as most inmates under this category are drug addicts and often indulge in mischief.

According to Tihar Jail officials, the prison -- Jail No. 7 with a capacity to accommodate 350 inmates -- would be used to lodge those arrested under Sections 107 (security for keeping peace) and 151 (arrest to prevent the commission of cognisable offences) of the Criminal Procedure Code.

On an average, about 25 per cent of the people sent to prison daily comprise such detenus. A good number of them are also found to be drug addicts and have often created mischief in their wards. Some of them have in the past couple of years also gone to the extent of plotting their escape.

This would mean that 80 to 100 such detainees arrive in Tihar Jail daily. At any given point of time, the number of detainees under the preventive sections in Tihar Jail is somewhere around 500. So far they used to be lodged in different jails according to the initial alphabets of their names.

Their number increases around Republic Day and Independence Day. Similarly, whenever the police launch a special drive to round up ruffians the number of such detainees register an unusual high.

For the time being, there are 70-odd personnel to look after the management of the jail, the construction work for which had begun four years ago.

Also, since most such detainees are addicts, there are plans to set up a rehabilitation clinic within the premises in due course. While the new jail is a part of the exercise to reduce the pressure on existing prisons in Tihar, it would also be filled to at least double the sanctioned capacity.

However, there might be much better news for the Tihar Jail authorities when the proposed new Rohini Jail is opened. Construction work for this jail, which has a capacity of around 1,000, is complete and the staff also has been sanctioned.

The actual recruitment of staff is due to begin soon. The jail is likely to become operational by the beginning of next year.

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