Srinagar, Apr 2: Prisoners at the Kot-Balwal jail are provided a “ridiculous” quantity of just 58 grams of meat or cheese once in a week while as there is a lack of para-medical staff at the Prison Hospital in the jail, the State Human Rights Commission has said in its annual report for the year 2009-10.
  “It is reported that there is a ten-bedded hospital in the jail to provide 24 hours health care to the prisoners and staff. One B-Grade physician and one Asst.Surgeon with para-medical staff is posted at the hospital. (However,) the information supplied shows that para-medical staff is not provided as per sanctioned strength. Instead it is seen that about 40 percent of sanctioned staff, as at present, is not at all posted in the hospital,” the report says, adding that inmates who require special treatment are referred to and treated at GMC Jammu, SMGS Hospital Jammu and CD Hospital Jammu.
 Regarding the food facilities at the jail, the report observes that even though the living   conditions of the inmates  in the jail, on taking a “comparative look”, is not bad in physical terms, and the scale and quantity of foods and drinks per day per inmate is as per jail manual of 2000, the prisoners are provided just 100 grams of milk per day,  which even as per the perception of the jail staff, and as per a doctor is “quite meagre and insufficient.”
  “Similarly meat/cheese given to the inmates once in a week is just 58 grams, which appears quite ridiculous, and the (jail) doctor and the jail administration agree that it is so,” the SHRC says, recommending an urgent  increase of 50 grams  for the milk and meat/cheese quantity.
 The SHRC recommends setting up of a committee comprising among others a diet expert to look in the matter to recommend proper, reasonable and minimum bare scale  of balanced food and drinks for inmates, indispensable for very existence of humans. “It is also found that a dietician need to be provided and given a job in the jail so that the health and to an extent physique of a prisoner is reasonably taken care of,” it says.
 The SHRC reports points out that even though there is no overcrowding problem in the jail— among the 371 inmates at the jail, 72 are foreign nationals( 13 convicts, 9 under trials and 50 PSA detenues)— the prisoners “do complain that punctual and regular transportation facilities are not made available to the detenues facing trial in various courts in the districts of Reasi, Ramban, Poonch, Rajouri, Doda, Kishtwar, etc.”

Lastupdate on : Sat, 2 Apr 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 2 Apr 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 3 Apr 2011 00:00:00 IST