No 4G jammers in jails, Centre blamed

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 26

Notwithstanding conspiracies of jailbreak and terror incidents made in Punjab jails, the Centre has not accorded approval to install 4G phone jammers in the state jails.

Jail Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said on Thursday that the Centre was sitting over the file to accord permission for over a year. He said this in context of unabated incidents of phone use on the jail premises.

He said he was shocked to receive several calls from jail inmates congratulating him on his appointment.

“Akalis had wrongly implicated many Congress workers who had called me. I was surprised to have first-hand experience of this illegal use of mobile phone and thus carried out a surprise raid in Patiala jail on Wednesday,” he said.

He said he warned the jail official concerned from where he received the phone calls. “Stringent action will be taken if such offence continues,” he added.

He said he would meet the Home Ministry officials soon to sort out the permission issue.

He announced that the department would soon install a 30-ft-wide net between the outer and inner wall of the jails so that material from outside didn’t land in the hands of inmates.

He said this after holding a meeting with ADGP, Prisons, Inderpreet Singh Sahota and IG, Prisons, Roop Lal. DSP, Security, Jails, Balwinder Singh gave a demo of how miscreants stuff drugs and mobile phones in tennis balls and improvised packets and later throw those over the walls into the jail premises.

The Jail Minister honoured DSP Balwinder Singh and Head Warden Bhagwant Singh of Central Jail, Amritsar, for rendering exceptional services in the line of duty.