Assam: Acute Shortage of Manpower & Poor Infrastructure in Jails

The rate or the numbers of crimes in Assam are increasing and so is the number of criminals. With the increasing numbers of crimes and criminals in the state, the numbers of prisoners are also increasing but the jails are facing acute shortage of manpower and infrastructure to look after these prisoners.

Although the jails in the state are full of prisoners, there are no adequate numbers of security guards. There are also vacancies of Additional jailers post in the jails. 34 numbers of Assistant Jailers post are lying vacant in the jails in Assam while 427 posts of security guards are vacant. The numbers of security guards are much less compared to the posts allotted in the jails to look after the prisoners.

There are only 34 security guards in Guwahati Central Jail against 1565 prisoners which mean against 46 prisoners there is only one security guard in the Central Jail.

On the other hand, the condition of other jails in the state is also the same. In Dibrugarh jail, there should be 42 jail security guards but there are only 20 guards. In Tinsukia, there are 20 posts of security guards but there are only 11 guards. In Sivasagar jail, there are only 10 guards while in Golaghat jail, there are only 12 guards against 408 prisoners.

Moreover, the jails don’t have only scarcity of security guards but there is also shortage of health workers and treatment. 16 posts of doctors are lying vacant in the jails while 10 posts of pharmacists are vacant in the jails of Assam.

The world inside the jails is different. It is also very difficult to take good care of the prisoners but a section of employees and officials join hands with each other. The bills have not been paid since 3 years to the suppliers. The suppliers of clothes, food and other materials have not received the payments since long. It was since 2019, that the payments are irregular for which there is a shortage of foods, clothes and medicines in the jails.

According to source, 3-5% commission has to be paid for the bills for which the payments are irregular.

The jails are also facing acute shortage of vehicles. In order to travel to court or to shift the prisoners in other jails, they need vehicles and these vehicles are taken in rent but the vehicle owners didn’t get the payment on time. An amount of Rs. 2crore is still pending for which the vehicle owners or organizations have to reject to provide the vehicles.