Members cutting across party lines on Friday urged Home Minister Araga Jnanendra to take stern measures to end the availability of drugs, liquor, pistols, arms, and cell phone services to prisoners with the aid of jail staff.
Members K.R. Ramesh Kumar, U.T. Khader, Tanveer Sait, Parameshwara Naik, Priyank Kharge (all Congress), Satish Reddy, K.G. Bopaiah (BJP), A.T. Ramaswamy, Sa Ra Ramesh, and K. Annadani (all JD-S) spoke in the Legislative Assembly on three Bills related to the Home Department and said the Minister should take action against prison staff for allowing illegal activities.
They said the staff should keep vigil on the people who regularly visit prisoners and monitor their activities. Though the authorities have installed jammers, all prisoners make calls to their relatives and even legislators, Mr. Khader and Mr. Annadani said.
Assembly members also complained about corruption in the administration of prisons and asked the Minister to take steps to eliminate it.
Three Bills
Meanwhile, the House passed three Bills — the Karnataka Prison Development Board Bill, 2021, Identification of Prisoners (Karnataka Amendment) Bill, 2021, and the Code of Criminal Procedure (Karnataka Amendment) Bill, 2021.
The first Bill is aimed at the constitution of the Karnataka Prison Development Board for skill improvement, welfare of prisoners, and development of prison industries. The board would be headed by the Home Minister.
Mr. Jnanendra said the second Bill is aimed at the collection of blood, DNA, voice, and iris scan samples of offenders for effective surveillance. The Bill aims to empower “Superintends of Police or Deputy SPs to order collection of measurements in addition to the Magistrate of first class so that avoidable delays are removed and the workload of the Judiciary as well as the police is reduced”.
The third Bill aims to record the evidence of the witness by audio-video electronic means in the presence of the advocate of the person who is accused of the offence.
