Uttarakhand : An amount of 1 crore will be released for the revolving fund of the Jail Development Board, entrepreneurship and self-employment among prisoners will be encouraged
The Chief Minister, Pushkar Singh Dhami, while agreeing to set up a revolving fund of the Jail Development Board in the state, has directed to release an initial amount of Rs 1 crore. With the help of this revolving fund, while on one hand entrepreneurship and self-employment will be encouraged among the prisoners, on the other hand, efforts will be made to ensure the supply of products in the government departments from more and more state jails. During the review meeting of the Prisons Department at the Secretariat on Tuesday, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami directed to expedite the modernization process of the jails. He directed to prepare at the earliest an action plan for VC halls and technical development in all the jails of the state to make arrangements for the production of prisoners before the courts through video conferencing.
IG Prisons Vimla Gunjyal informed that CCTV cameras have been fully installed in 03 jails of the state and work is going on to install CCTV in 07 jails. 89 body van cameras have also been arranged in the jails. Video call facility is available for prisoners and their families under e-Mulakaat. Records of prisoners have been digitized through e-prison. So far 4868 prisoners have been produced in courts through video conferencing. Chief Minister Dhami said that the jails of the state should be developed as model jails. Along with improving the prisoners in jails, entrepreneurship should be developed in them through training. They should be encouraged towards self-employment. In this direction, work is being done on an action plan to get the prisoners stitched in the uniforms of various departments, hospitals and schools of the state government. Efforts will also be made to get maximum supply of goods of government departments from jails.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami also directed to sign an MoU with AIIMS and arrange a corpus fund for the treatment of prisoners at AIIMS Rishikesh. The Chief Minister said that camps should be set up in jails for making Ayushman cards of all prisoners and their families. The Prisons Department of the state is soon working on an action plan on the lines of Adarsh Jail Lucknow to engage well-behaved prisoners outside the prison for work like cellune, press, carpenter, motor binding. The formation of Uttarakhand Prison Development Board under the chairmanship of Chief Minister was also discussed in the meeting. Along with this, suitable land allotment was considered for the construction of the headquarters of the prison department in the state. The Chief Minister also agreed on the formation of the Jail Employees Welfare Fund on the lines of the Police and Home Guard Departments.
Additional Chief Secretary Radha Raturi, IG Riddhim Agrawal, Additional Secretary Personnel Atar Singh along with senior officers of Prisons and Police Department were present in the meeting.
