A delegate addresses the audience at the seminar in Muzaffarpur on Sunday. Picture by Gopi Raman

Muzaffarpur, Feb. 5: Police should initiate steps to release the arrested persons booked under the bailable sections to reduce the burden of prisoners on jails, chairperson of Bihar State Human Rights Commission S.N. Jha said today.

Jha, a former judge of Patna High Court, while addressing a University Grants Commission-funded seminar on “Human rights and the jail administration” at Ramdayalu Singh College, said the Bihar jails were overcrowded.

“The inmates of the jails are compelled to live in pitiable condition. Therefore, there have been a number of cases of blatant violation of human rights,” he said.

Jha said the state government had been finding it difficult to check congestion in the jails. “It is high time for the judicial officers to have a liberal and sympathetic approach in granting bails to ease the congestion. This is the only alternative because when the state government fails to perform its duty, the role of judicial officers and the police officers become vital,” Jha said.

Kavita Srivastava, a human rights activist from Jaipur, said: “The inmates are provided inferior quality of food. Even the quantity is not enough. This is a glaring case of human rights violation. Inmates fall ill because of lack of a proper diet. The jails also lack proper health facilities.”

She said the state should improve the facilities at the jails. On the violation of human rights, she said: “Innocent people, who spearhead the crusade against the draconian rules of the government, are often at the receiving end. People are being uprooted from their ancestral villages on the pretext of development. The government grabs their land and gives a meagre compensation in return. Even that comes after legal hassles. The displaced people run from pillar to post and the government just takes no steps to rehabilitate them.”

She said: “This system is being followed across the country and Bihar is no exception. The oppressive attitude of the government should come to an end. The Centre has given responsibility to the states to tackle Naxalism. The state police have often been barbaric in dealing with the Naxalites. The government should start a political process of holding dialogues with them and try and bring them to the mainstream.”