Ghaghidih Central Jail

Jamshedpur, Feb. 21: Ghaghidih Central Jail on Jamshedpur’s outskirts is in no way similar to Jharkhand Bhawan in New Delhi, but for a squeak.

Both the buildings seem to have a fair population of rats, who obviously can’t be faulted for not knowing the difference between governors and convicts.

Just this month, Governor Syed Ahmed was bitten by a rodent while asleep at his suite in Jharkhand Bhawan.

Inmates at Ghaghidih jail will empathise. Here, mice play merry hell with prisoners and authorities alike, slipping inside cells and biting undertrials and convicts as well as furrowing tunnels and nibbling holes on the high boundary wall.

Before the central jail resembles a nibbled slice of cheese and inmates reel under an endemic of rodent bites, jail officials have decided to get into the act by deputing 400 convicts to catch the mice.

“Rats have almost ploughed the jail compound from underneath. They have also made holes on the jail’s high boundary wall. Rat bites are common,” a source said, adding urgent measures were on cards.

The jail administration will engage the chosen team of convicts, including hardcore criminals, to sprinkle poison at strategic corners. They will also fix killer gums to target the rats.

Last week, jail superintendent Tushar Ranjan Gupta met East Singhbhum deputy commissioner Himani Pande and district health officials to discuss procedures to be adopted to control the rats, who are more than home there than human beings. A stock of rat poison and killer gums has also arrived.

“We have placed dustbins at different locations of the jail, including cells, and asked inmates specifically to throw food wastes in them. We will do everything that discourages the entry of rats. Then, we will take measures to dispose of the existing rats,” said the jail superintendent.

He added that they planned all kinds of in-house tasks for inmates, including gardening and cooking, but snaring and killing rats would now also be a part. “Getting rid of all rats will take time. But we have to make a start. The health of 1,140 undertrials and prisoners needs to be looked into seriously,” Gupta said.

He also negated the view that the task of killing rats would pose problems or risks for the inmates.

“Locating a dead mouse should be easy. Rats get stuck on the killer gum. We will place the stuff in the open spaces of the jail compound and cells,” he said.

Pied Piper got rid of Hamelin’s rodents. Toon cat Tom failed to nail mouse Jerry. Now, Ghaghidih’s anti-rodent squad knows its role model.