Who’ll bail ‘Central Jail’ out of jail?

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Jan 9: All convicts are not decrepit. They still add something to the economy of the tion. They are not work-shy either. Many among them work more skillfully than lakhs of others who are not behind bars. Those who have been serving rigorous imprisonment terms rather work much more.

Central Jail Guwahati, located at Lokhra in the city, has many convicts who are, in no way, decrepit. They continue to work, and the output that comes from their hard work is essentially part of the economy of the country. All prisoners are not convicts. All convicts serving their respective terms in the jail do not work. The convicts who do some productive works, like common people, are skilled as well as unskilled. While each of the former earns Rs 75 a day, each of the latter category workers gets Rs 55 a day. Some of the skilled workers have got the Midas touch. Low-floor bamboo stools (murha), trunk boxes, wooden ladles, buckets etc., are some of the products they make. They should feel proud that the low-floor bamboo stools (murhas) produced by them are on display for sales at various exhibitions in the country. Sixty such murhas produced by the convicts of Central Jail Guwahati were on display at an exhibition at Pragati Maidan at New Delhi recently. The murhas being produced by the convicts of this jail have the wow factor.

There are over 1,000 prisoners, including some foreigners, in Central Jail Guwahati. Each of them gets a chapatti of flour weighing 90 gm, a cup of milk tea and lump of molasses at 6 in the morning as breakfast.  They have their meal comprising rice, dal and curry at 10.30 in the morning. They get supper comprising rice, dal and curry at 4.30 pm. They get any of fish, meat or eggs at two meals a week.

Will Dispur at all bail this central jail out of jail? A question worth posed! The jail in the city was first located at Machkhowa, Guwahati till 2012 when it was shifted to Lokhra, Guwahati.  

It was thought that the condition of the jail would get a boost after being shifted to the new location.  However, things have not turned that way. Now the condition of the jail is worse. The approach road to the jail tells one the tale of its condition, both inside and outside its four walls. As seen in the picture, the road is dusty and grits scatter here and there on its. It was a pitched road, a fact that seems to be unbelievable. There is no sign of blacktopping on the road. There are no traces of bitumen that was used to keep the materials used to blacktop it together. It is even worse than a kutcha road.    

According to jail authorities, around three months ago, the Kamrup (M) Deputy Commissioner visited the jail and assured the jail authorities of improving the condition of the approach road. The condition of the road is going from bad to worse in every passing day.

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