Mandoli prisons: EDMC slaps Rs 6-cr penalty on Delhi govt

The East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) has imposed a penalty of over Rs 6 crore on the AAP government for shifting prisoners from Tihar Jail to the newly-constructed Mandoli prisons without obtaining completion certificate from it.

The civic body, which is mandated to issue completion certificate to new buildings under its jurisdiction, has asked the prisons department of the Delhi government to pay pre-occupancy charges for the "violation" of laid down rules.

Government sources said that a file pertaining to the issue had been sent to Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Delhi Home Minister Satyendar Jain, who would take a final decision on the payment of pre-occupancy charges.

Around 3,000 inmates of Tihar Jail have been shifted to Mandoli prisons in East Delhi so far, they said.

The first batch of 50 prisoners were moved to Mandoli in December 2016.

"The EDMC has asked the prisons department of the government to pay Rs 6,03,44,062 for shifting prisoners from Tihar to Mandoli without getting completion certificate from it," an official, who did not wish to be named, told PTI.

The official said that the department had sent a file to Sisodia and Jain, and asked them to take a decision on what the government should do in the matter.

Prisoners were shifted to Mandoli as part of the Delhi government's plan to de-congest the over-crowded Tihar Jail which currently houses around 10,500 inmates against the capacity of 7,000.

Mandoli Jail is mandated to accommodate around 3,700 prisoners. It has six prisons.

In April this year, Jain had said the Delhi government was planning to re-develop single-storey buildings of Tihar Jail into four-storey ones to decongest the central jail.

Besides decongesting it, the move would also provide sufficient playgrounds for inmates of the high-security jails, the minster had said.