Hoshiarpur, December 28
As part of the state government’s initiative in the state jails for the rehabilitation of prisoners, Minister Harjot Singh Bains today inaugurated a petrol filling station, ‘Ujala Fuels’, installed by the Punjab Jail Development Board and Indian Oil Corporation outside the Central Jail, Hoshiarpur.
The minister said in order to bring the prisoners into the mainstream, well-behaved inmates would get training so that they could be deputed at this petrol pump. The income generated from the petrol pump would be spent by the Jail Development Board on the welfare and education of the prisoners. He said this was the third petrol pump in the state set up in jails in association with the Indian Oil.
The other two petrol pumps are being run in Rupnagar and Ludhiana. More such pumps are being planned in Ferozepur and Patiala. Bains said in eight months, the maximum number of 4,800 mobile phones had been seized from the jails, which is a record till now. Similarly, many of the jail employees had also been suspended and drugs have also been recovered from the jails. All this was the result of the strictness being adopted in the jails, he claimed.
The minister said Punjab was the first state in the country where drug screening has been done for all prisoners lodged in the jails. Apart from this, Punjab has become the first state in the country to conduct family visits in jails. The cabinet minister filled the oil in some vehicles himself on the occasion.
