Hyderabad, June 05: The Hyderabad collector is supposed to visit the district prison once in every four months, but that has never happened in the district, though the present collector, Natarajan Gulzar, might have an excuse as it’s been just two months since he took over.
As per the AP Prison Rules 1979, the Board of Visitors (BoV) has to be constituted with the collector as chairman and district medical and health officer and district education officer (DEO) among members. All the board members should interact with prisoners, conduct enquiries and solve their problems. However, officials of the prison department told expresso that BoV itself has never been formed.
The BoV for Chanchalguda jail is supposed to be organised by the Hyderbad collector providing a platform for over 500 prisoners to express their grievances, prison officials said.
None of the recent collectors – Aravind Kumar, RV Chandravadan, Naveen Mittal and Natarajan Gulzar – had been to the prison to organise the BoV. “The earlier collectors visited the prison on October 2, the day when prisoners are set free for their good conduct, but not in connection with BoV,” a senior prison official told expresso.
Ironically, the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative’s report on prison visiting system in AP says that most collectors are unaware that they are the ex-officio chairmen of the BoVs.
The case was no different in other districts, the officials said.
“The DM & HO is supposed to examine the medical facilities provided in the prison and suggest corrective measures.
The DEO is expected to ensure opportunities for prisoners to study.
But there is absolutely no pro-active move from them,” the official added.
Apart from the BoV, the secretary, Legal Services Authority, has to redress the grievances of prisoners.
“Though a BoV is not in place, we act on the secretary’s reference. The secretary interacts with prisoners to know their problems. However, the secretary has a limited role compared to the BoV,’’ another official said.
—Agencies