Surveillance in porous central prisons may improve by this year-end.

Jharkhand Agency for Promotion of Information technology (JAPIT), the nodal outfit for electronic networking in the state, is learnt to have floated online tenders to seek a suitable firm to supply, commission and maintain a hi-tech vigilance system at Birsa Munda Central Jail in Hotwar, Ranchi.

The September 30 tender notice mentions that the agency will be chosen by November, although the final date of opening the bid hasn’t been announced yet. This fresh step to install a new cluster of closed-circuit television cameras will also be extended to the state’s two remaining high-security prisons — Ghaghidih Central Jail in East Singhbhum and Loknayak Jaiprakash Narayan Central Jail in Hazaribagh.

Birsa jail superintendent Ashok Kumar Choudhary on Tuesday confirmed the development and said they had already shelled out Rs 58 lakh for implementation of the project. According to another jail official, requisition has been made for around three dozen cameras.

Incidentally, in 2008, the Hotwar facility was the first in Jharkhand to get 16 surveillance cameras under a jail modernisation programme. But, like all good things, the project had a short life. For want of maintenance for three years or more, most of the gadgets are lying defunct.

The central prison has an inmate capacity of 3,500 while more than 2,700 are lodged there at present. Of them, at least 100 are Maoists or hardcore criminals. Given the perennial manpower crunch in prisons, in addition to blinking camera surveillance, it goes without saying that security at Birsa jail stands largely compromised today.

Not to forget scars from the past either.

Time and again, the high-security prison has spewed bevy of banned items like mobile phones and knives. Also, in June 2011, an unidentified visitor had managed to smuggle in spiked soft drink that killed three inmates inside the jail.

“Surveillance cameras and signal jammers are integral to prison security, especially in a state like ours where manpower is never adequate. We have been trying to install the gadgets for long, but to no avail. This time, we have already paid JAPIT. Let’s see how soon things happen,” Birsa jail superintendent Choudhary said.

At Ghaghidih central jail, superintendent Olive Gracius Kullu conceded that they had placed a similar requisition too. “I don’t recall how much money has been paid and I don’t have the files here, but we need around 35 CCTV cameras for proper monitoring of the premises. Currently, we have nine cameras and all are working,” she claimed.

However, sources in the jail said that out of the 16 surveillance gadgets, only four were functioning. They also added that Rs 30 lakh had been routed to the IT agency from the home department as repair and fresh installation costs.

The Ghaghidih jail has an inmate capacity of 1,447; currently, 1,414 are lodged at the facility; and 30 of them are Naxalites or hardcore criminals.

Superintendent Rupam Prasad of Hazaribagh central jail could not be contacted on Tuesday.

An official said the prison had received 23 cameras around four years ago. “Around half a dozen have stopped working for over a year now while the others function on and off. The problem is no one has technical expertise to fix a glitch, if there is any,” he added.

The jail is also overcrowded with more than 2,000 inmates, 75 of them crime top guns, against a capacity of 1990.

Do you think this repeat project will see the light of day?

Tell ttkhand@abpmail.com