Expressing strong displeasure over the poor condition of kitchens and toilets in Odisha jails, the Orissa High Court has directed the Director-General of Prisons and Correctional Services to constitute a special implementation committee and fix the deficiencies in 10 days.
After going through a report on the status of jails in the State, the Division Bench comprising Chief Justice S. Muralidhar and Justice R. K. Pattanaik expressed concern over the condition of kitchens and toilets in jails.
The Division Bench directed the setting up of a special implementation committee to ensure that each of the deficiencies pointed out in the reports of the Secretaries of the District Legal Services Authorities (DLSAs) and in the detailed note of the amicus curiae is rectified on an urgent basis.
As per reports, substantial improvements or repair work were required in at least 13 district jails and sub-jails and 6 sub-jails with regards to hygiene. Besides, drinking water facilities were needed to be installed in 12 sub-jails.
“Some of the photographs presented to the court bear out the dismal condition of the toilets. Many of the ladies’ toilets in the sub-jails, including those at Ranpur and Daspalla, do not even have doors and none of them has a flush facility,” the Bench observed.
“The secretaries of DLSAs will undertake one more visit on April 30 and May 1, by which time all the repairs to the toilets, the kitchens and the wards should have been carried out and the deficiencies pointed out in the reports removed,” the HC ordered
Similarly, the amicus curiae underscored on the need for the visit of a psychiatrist the to Special Jail in Rourkela. There were as many as 54 inmates, who required psychiatric care. Only one psychiatric specialist visits the jail once in a month. The inmates are having to be taken all the way to Veer Surendera Sai (VSS) Medical College, Burla for check-up and regular medicines.
According to the Orissa HC judgment, the prison authorities promised to take expeditious steps to address concerns.
