M A I N   N E W S

Punjab jails run out of ration
Aman Sood
Tribune News Service

Patiala, December 21
With no budgetary allocation for jails, Punjab prisons are facing an acute shortage of ration. Providing two square meals to inmates is turning out to be a herculean task for officials who are forced to buy items from the market on credit.

Sources said the jail department had run out of vegetables, cooking oil, sugar, milk powder, lentils, salt and cooking gas. In October, the government had released Rs 5 crore towards ration expenses against the requirement of Rs 10 crore.

A senior jail official said: “Now even getting items on credit from the market is getting difficult with the pending pending dues piling.”

According to official data, the strength in Punjab jails has risen from 18,000 in 2012 to over 27,000 in 2013. “Instead of increasing allocation, the Finance Department made no budgetary provision for administrative expenditure, little realising that this money is meant for buying ration for inmates,”explained a jail official.

Alarming still, most district jails have run out of medicine stocks too. While Faridkot, Ludhiana and Patiala jails have acute shortage of cooking gas and sugar, other jails do not even have a regular supply of vegetables. “This shortage can trigger anarchy inside jails,”cautioned a prison official.

Jails Minister Sarwan Singh Phillaur did not respond to repeated calls. When contacted, the Principal Secretary, Home, DS Bains, admitted the Finance Department had made a mistake in trimming the office expenditure for jails.

He said the problem would be solved soon.

“I will send the file right by hand away to clear the mess," Bains added.

What’s ailing prisons

• The strength in Punjab jails has risen from 18,000 in 2012 to over 27,000 in 2013
• Instead of increasing allocation, the Finance Department made no budgetary provision for administrative expenditure whatsoever
• It did not realise that the money was meant for buying ration for jail inmates