75% of Tihar are undertrials, some may be released soon

Prasad said the Tihar jail, with a capacity about 6,250 prisoners, currently houses 14,537 prisoners. He said a judicial committee, as directed by the Supreme Court, will visit the jail to identify prisoners, who have served half their possible sentence and are eligible for release under Section 436A of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).

The Mandoli Jail, Ray said, has been constructed as a modern state-of-the-art prison in which six jails will be commissioned. The jail is being constructed on 68 acres, procured at the cost of Rs 340.56 crore. The jail will have a capacity of 3,776 prisoners. The jail hospital at Mandoli will have CCTV surveillance and an air-cooling system.
Ray also said the religious committee, appointed by the Lt-Governor, has been working with the land-owning agencies and religious leaders to sort out the matter of ‘illegal shrines’. While there are 1,154 cases of alleged illegal shrines, the committee had discussed 41 cases and the removal of 19 has been approved, the Home department said.
The principal secretary said the government will consider the removal of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system. “The idea of BRT is in itself not bad, but it needs better implementation,” Ray said.

He said Delhi needed a training institute for fire officials. Currently, they get trained either in Nagpur or abroad. “We need an institute of international standards for fire-fighting in Delhi,” Ray said. The institute will be constructed at Budanpur Majara on 72 bighas of land.

He added that 30 per cent of Delhi schools have not been given a no-objection certificate (NOC) by the Fire Services Department and these schools are under examination. Also, five hospitals, including the Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital and the G B Pant Hospital, are yet to get a NOC from the Fire department.

The home department has also started the process of recruiting 2,000 male constables to the existing work force of 80,000. In addition, the government has sanctioned 7,200 posts for home guards to serve as auxiliary to police and to assist them in maintaining internal security. They will also assist the community in an emergency.

In light of the recent Rs 1.5 crore ATM robbery in Roop Nagar, in which a private security guard was killed, Ray said the Delhi Police will have a meeting with all banks, including the Reserve Bank of India, and seek data about which private security firm is used by each bank.

Ray said this would help the government create a database of the private security workforce in Delhi.