The SP Jail was right when he said that the state jails are highly inadequate in terms of equipment and also poorly staffed, but he is wrong in making certain comparisons. He had said that, in the high security Tihar jail a number of mobiles were recovered even with the presence of high ended equipments CCTVs and mobile jammers, and he even went to the extent of pulling in high security market area. It seems he is trying to defend himself for the recent incidents, while there is no need to do so. The fault lies in the system and government policies that he is a prisoner of. Incidents in the recent past had made a joke of jail security, where one could easily smuggle in mobile handsets and a prisoner could even orchestrate criminal activities in the outside world. The most recent incident is the seizure of Khaini and cigarette packets from two VDF personnel posted in the jail premises. The quantity of the seizure is not important, but the group to which the two persons belong is very important. The Village Defence Force (VDF) is one of the most undisciplined forces ever raised in the state. And they are underpaid as compared to the duties they had been given or assigned. From manning check points on the road to guarding government officials they are assigned all kinds of duties. Along came a serious of crimes including vehicle theft, highway robbery, extortion, and drug peddling. More recently, the matter of VDF personnel supplying mobile handsets and SIM cards to a notorious KCP faction leader Thokchom Nando last year came to light. And in the present set-up such incidents will continue to happen. VDF is the problem. Majority of them had invested a few thousand for the recruitment. With a remuneration of Rs 3000 per month also without ration allowances, one cannot do anything substantial and it is but natural for them to start looking for additional sources of income. It is not only in the jails but such abuse of powers is happening all over the place. Now the question is what led to the decision of deployment of VDF personnel and who took it? According to jail authorities, many of the vacancies arising out of retirement of jail employees had not been filled up for so many years. Perhaps, it was to compensate the inadequacy in jail staff which led to the deployment of VDF personnel on rotation from the VDF units attached to the four valley districts. It was rather a foolish decision bereft of ground realities. What is now required is filled up the vacancies in the Manipur jails. But the VDF personnel should be done away with. On the matter of jail security system, we must examine the applicability of the Tihar model in the state, as suggested by jail authorities. Tihar Jail in Delhi has three tier security systems. The outer perimeter is manned by personnel of the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) while the Tamil Nadu Police is deployed at the middle layer and the Jail staff in the inner area. They also have other facilities like perimeter CCTV Camera, mobile jammers and other modern equipments to help security measures. The idea is of two neutral forces manning the outer perimeter and the middle layer security. The outer perimeter of both the Central Jail at Imphal and Sajiwa were once guarded by CRPF personnel while the jail staff manned the internal security. The CRPF personnel use to conduct evening checking in every cell including the toilets. Now, a state force has replaced the outer perimeter security and a combine of VDF and jail staff in the inner security. And unsavoury incidents are bound to happen. So, a change of guard involving neutral forces has become essential. The jail security also needs to be backed up by modern equipments. And the process of filling up vacant posts should be immediately started. One should also think of creating new posts of jail staff in consideration of the large number of inmates. While the Central jail at Imphal has about 40 women inmates including a convict, the Central Jail at Sajiwa houses about 700 inmates. This should be taken into consideration.
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