Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s government has taken an initiative to construct a prison exclusively for women on the Alipore Central jail compound. It will also beef up security at all prisons across the state.

The government’s jails and social welfare department has drawn up the blueprint and work on it will start soon.

According to inspector-general (IG) of police (prison) Joydeb Chakraborty, the women’s jail will be the second of its kind in Bengal and will house 500 prisoners.

“We already have a jail for women in Purulia, but we have noticed that relatives of the inmates, who are serving a life sentence, are reluctant to go all the way to meet them,” he said.

“That is why we have lodged nearly 300 women in Presidency jail,” said a department official.

The Purulia jail can accommodate 150 prisoners. At present, there are only 60 inmates.

“We have decided to build the new jail on three acres in the jail complex in Alipore, where non-criminal lunatics are now lodged. In recent years, we have seen things becoming progressively difficult at Presidency jail, where female and male inmates are lodged alongside each other. A separate enclosure for women will allow them privacy and make it easier for us to bring them back to the mainstream,” Chakraborty added.

Construction of the women’s jail is part of a larger project taken up by the state government. “A Rs 14-crore project has been taken up to renovate the jails in the state and provide better facilities to the inmates,” department officials pointed out.

The renovation will include repairs of Presidency jail cells. The height of the boundary wall of Alipore Central jail will be raised, as it houses several high-profile criminals, like Aftab Ansari. “The decision to beef up security in jails was taken after the recent getaway from Dum Dum Central jail, in which drug lord Baitha Kima and five associates scaled the walls and fled,” the officials said.