Adityanath orders more jails in UP to ease overcrowding

LUCKNOW, (PTI): Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday ordered the construction of new jails and more barracks in the existing ones to deal with overcrowding.

He said there should be a facility of sanitary napkins, dispensers, and incinerators at the women’s help desk in prisons. He said the Women helpline 1090 should be given the status of ‘Public Safety Awareness Point’.

The CM made the suggestions while issuing guidelines on Presentation of Action Plan of Home, Prison, Home Guard, Secretariat Administration and Appointment and Personnel departments before the Council of Ministers here.

“To solve the problem of overcrowding of prisoners in jails, new barracks should be constructed in old jails. Land should be purchased for the construction of district jails in Amroha, Sambhal, Shamli, and Muzaffarnagar,” he said. He directed the officials to construct district jails also in Amethi, Hathras, Auraiya, Hapur, Chandauli, Bhadohi, Kushinagar, and Mahoba, an official release said.

The CM expressed the need to amend the existing policy on premature release of prisoners, and instructed officials to follow up on the suggestion within the next 100 days.

There are in all 73 prisons in UP.

According to the latest National Crime Records Bureau report, the prisoner occupancy rate here is much higher at 177, as against 118, the national average.

Occupancy rate means the ratio of inmates staying in a jail against the authorised capacity. The authorised capacity is stipulated to be 100 inmates per jail — any number above it implies the jail is overcrowded. Adityanath in the meeting emphasised on the need to strengthen the prosecution of the accused in sensitive cases, such as child abuse. In view of the rising cyber crimes, he said that a digital forensic lab and a cyber forensic lab should be established in Lucknow. A Forensic Institute is already being set up in Lucknow.

The CM directed the officials to establish forensic field units in every district, as well as cyber help desks in every police station.

He said personnel posted at cyber police stations should be trained in forensics.

He also instructed officials to move one of the three corps of Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) from Sitapur to Ayodhya, and one corps from Moradabad to Sambhal.

He said that the two Women PAC battalions set up in the Budaun and Lucknow — Avantibai and Uda Devi ji, respectively — should be made operational in the next two years.

The CM said that the Uttar Pradesh Special Security Force (UPSSF) should be trained to safeguard the Metro Rail, with one battalion each from the force posted in Saharanpur, Mathura, Prayagraj, and Gorakhpur.

He said the government is “committed to fill all departmental vacancies expeditiously”, and directed the officials to set up an online portal to make timely requisitions for vacant posts, he said.

Adityanath said that due to non-promotion on time, the morale of the personnel has been impacted. He asked the officials to ensure all such promotions are done across departments by September 30 this year. The annual transfer policy for 2022-23 to 2026-27 should be issued by the end of April, he said. (PTI)