Minister made surprise visit on tip off to jail where Punjab’s most influential inmate is lodged
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in
Newly appointed Punjab Jail Minister Harjot Singh Bains on Friday afternoon made a surprise visit to central jail Patiala, where Punjab’s most influential inmate, Bikram Singh Majithia is lodged in a drug case in Patiala Central Jail since February 24.
Speculations are rife that jail minister Bains got secret information that shiromani akali dal ex MLA and brother in law of SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, Bikram Singh Majithia was using a phone in the jail. Bains cut short his scheduled meetings in the afternoon and left for the surprise check. However, nothing was found from Majithia’s barrack.
Bains asked the jail officials “to be vigilant and not provide any VIP treatment to anyone. All inmates are equal and treat them equally, whosoever he is. CM Bhagwant Mann has given clear instructions to me to take stern action against officials found indulging in any wrongdoing.”
Bains said “ that law is equal for everyone, either he is a politician or a common man and officials are accountable, and whosoever is found inefficient or breaking rules, will have to face music,” he added.
Accusing the previous regime of failing to bring any reform in the Jails, he said, “there is dearth of staff. No efforts has been made to introduce new technology to check misuse of phones. Only cosmetic efforts were done to score brownie points,” said Bains.
Bains said the government would introduce a new technology to put an end to all illegal activities being run from inside jails.
The state government was planning to set up de-addiction centres inside the jail premises as around 40 per cent of the inmates were addicts, he said.
He said that he has already made a file to recruit new staff in the jail department to clear the backlog.
Minister made surprise visit on tip off to jail where Punjab’s most influential inmate is lodged . Jail minister Harjot Singh Bains along with IG jails Roop Kumar, SSP Patiala Dr Sandeep Garg, jail superintendent Shivraj Singh Nandgarh, additional jail superintendent Rajdeep Singh Brar, deputy superintendent Harjot Singh kaler and other jail official accompanied him.
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