Your reporter Abid Bashir has brought news item in your daily on 23rd July, 2018 depicting very poor conditions of the Central Jail Srinagar like poor food quality, denial of medical aid and delay in trials. These allegations are strongly denied as being far from truth. Jail is not a closed system now. At present many committees and dignitaries keep on visiting the Jails to see the conditions of the jail and that of the inmates. In this regard District Committees comprising of Principal District & Sessions Judge (Chairman), District Magistrate concerned, District Superintendent of Police concerned, Chief Prosecuting Officer concerned and Chief Medical Officer concerned are quarterly visiting the Jails.
Recently the District and Sessions Judges of Anantnag and Kulgam have visited District Jail Anantnag and even Central Jail Srinagar has been recently visited by District & Sessions Judge Srinagar accompanied by Second Additional Munsiff Judicial Magistrate Srinagar and Superintendent of Police North Srinagar on 07.07.2018.
In nutshell there was no strike; however, some inmates were resisting their shifting which had got necessitated for smooth function of the Jail. Despite all this, administration takes all steps in providing the basic facilities as needed to the inmates for their physical and mental well being. There is a well established medical unit where 04 doctors remain present and more than 10 number of para medical staff work round the clock to provide medical care to the inmates, so the news of denial of medical care is false and baseless.
As the Jail is very old and needs some immediate repairs which have been undertaken. The Jail is facing overcrowding which have been taken note of by visiting teams and Amicus Curie. In his report, the Amicus Curie has mentioned that overcrowding is putting lot of pressure on the existing infrastructure and every facility is under strain.
For your information it will not be out of place of mention here that 162 number of inmates treated in Jail Hospital w.e.f 16.07.2018 to 21.07.2018 and 05 number of inmates have been referred to the outside Jail Hospital for specialized treatment/check-ups.
The visiting teams have not so far reported the poor condition of the jail in respect of these facilities. It is pertinent to mention here that sufficient funds and material is being provided for sports activities, TVs and Newspapers. Recently new kitchen has been made functional for inmates after around 30 years which is step to provide all basic facilities to these inmates in clean atmosphere. So the news papers shall present correct picture of the things and shall verify from the concerned on the ground before publishing such misleading news items. Ethics of the Journalism demands that both sides shall be heard before publishing the news items.
Recently a misleading news item regarding death of one PSA detenue namely Ghulam Hassan Malik @ Noor Khan S/o Ghulam Mohammad Malik R/o LjaraPehliporaBoniyar Uri DisrictBaramulla was published in the newspaper that proper medical care has not been provided to the deceased detenue which is also strongly denied. In Central Jail Jammu, Kotbhalwal there is a proper hospital functional where 03 doctors and 11 number of para medical staff are working round the clock. The detenue named above was shifted to Govt. Medical College, Jammu on the referral of the doctors for specialized treatment.
The department leaves no stone unturned to provide timely and proper medical treatment to the ailing inmates. Being a responsible citizen of this country it is not expected to publish news items simply on hearsay but after proper verification on the ground. It’s expected that concerned reporters shall be advised to conduct themselves professionally &resposibily in future.
Thanks.
Lot of good wishes.
Yours sincerely,
Sd/-
Public Relations Officer,
Prisons Department,
J&K, Srinagar