BHOPAL: In a bid to increase the level of supervision in four major jails of the state, including Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior and Jabalpur, the state government has decided to post deputy inspector general (DIG) rank officers. Earlier, these jails had only jailors or superintendents. The DIGs would not only monitor activities in central jails, but also look after the district jails coming under their jurisdiction.The security at these jails had drawn flak after eight alleged SIMI activists had escaped from the highly-fortified Bhopal Central Jail on October 31, 2016 after killing a guard, though hours later all of them were gunned down. Prisoners have escaped from other jails too, but the incident in Bhopal on Diwali night grabbed national headlines.The jail department of the state government has already sent a proposal in this regard to the government. The new system is expected to be in place in about a month. DG (Jail) Sanjay Chaudhary confirmed the move and said DIGs will be posted soon in jails to boost supervision.In case of an issue at any jail, presently an official is sent from the headquarters in Bhopal, which takes time. Placing DIGs in major jails will make things easier and better, Chaudhary added.There are around 126 jails in MP which house 41,000 prisoners. Jails in MP are overcrowded and they have 10,000 more inmates than their total capacity. Officials said in the current setup too, DIGs exists, but since all of them are stationed in Bhopal there is no monitoring on regular basis and the dependency is on jailors or superintendents.Officials said the new move would not require setting up of new offices as they already exist in jail buildings at Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior and Jabalpur. The move would also improve monitoring of the jails in the nearby district jails, officials said. Security and monitoring of jails has been a challenge in major state jails.Earlier, there was a proposal to deploy Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) for security of jails in the state, but it could not happen as the proposal was reportedly turned down by the Centre. The jail department has also mooted a proposal to reduce women reservation for jail guards from 30% to 10% stating deploying women guards in prisons is risky as more than 90% of the prisoners (undertrials and convicts) are males.However, this proposal was turned down by the government pointing out that women’s reservation cannot be reduced in appointments of one department, as other departments too would make a similar demand giving various reasons.

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