Tighten security of Pak prisoners: Badal to Jails dept

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today directed jails department authorities to tighten the security of Pakistani prisoners lodged in different prisons of the state.
Presiding over meeting of jails department here, Badal directed the officers to ensure foolproof security of 57 Pakistani prisoners lodged in different prisons of Punjab.
Jails must be well secured and special measures should be taken to ensure the safety of Pakistani nationals, he said.
A Pakistani prisoner Sanaullah serving a life term was attacked inside the high-security Kot Balwal jail in Jammu by a fellow inmate yesterday morning.
Badal directed the officers to keep a strict vigil in the jails where Pakistani prisoners were lodged, according to an official release here.

On the issue of supply of drugs inside the jails, Badal asked the concerned departments to take immediate corrective actions in this regard.

He asked the officers to ensure immediate assessment of the medical condition of a person upon his arrest adding that any person, particularly, a drug addict found to be suffering from a serious medical ailment and warranting urgent medical care should be admitted to hospital for stabilisation before being lodged in prison.
Badal told the Jails department to boost the capacity of the central jails having functional drug de-addiction centres, which were being used to treat addicted inmates, by recruiting more staff and upgradation of services like psychiatric care and counselling services.

Badal directed the officials to seek security personnel from other states and central para-military forces on a reciprocal basis for the outer ring of the jail premises so as to reduce inter-mingling and fraternising of security personnel with convicts.
In order to step up the security in the inner ring, he said that 700 trained ex-servicemen would be deployed by Punjab Ex-servicemen Corporation (PESCO) at an estimated cost of Rs 8 crore per year.