HYDERABAD: Days after terror operative Yasin Bhatkal, currently lodged in Cherlapally prison, informed the trial court about an alleged threat to his life and demanding CCTV surveillance, Director General (Prisons) VK Singh on Friday denied possibility of such surveillance and reiterated that the Indian Mujahideen chief was safe and secure in the jail.
"We cannot provide any such facility unless the government or the court asks us to. I can tell you confidently that he is safe and secure inside the prison," said Singh at a press conference.
According to Singh, neither intelligence nor investigative agencies have alerted them about any threat to Bhatkal nor had any authority informed that of an alleged phone call he made from within the prison.
The DG, while listing achievements of his department in the last one year, said he had set a target of `100 crore annual earnings from the prisons' commercial and industrial activities 15 years from now. Following up on the 'corruption-free prisons' status, which he had announced several months ago, he said an independent survey would be conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, through the Centre for Good Governance to support his initiative.
"In 2014, we earned `2.38 crore. We are going to open six more petrol bunks outside our jails which is expected to bring us a revenue of `20 crore annually. In addition, we are planting one lakh teak plants with a target of earning `100 crore in next 15 years," said Singh.
He also stated that over 20,000 illiterate undertrials and convicts have been made literates in the last nine months. Other steps like prisoners' welfare, employee welfare, jammers and CCTV cameras, visitor's hall at all prisons, interest-free loans for prisons personnel, spa and wellness centre, prison heritage museum etc are in various stages of implementation, he said.
Chetana for Prisoners
Prison department's massive prisoners' reformation process "Chetana" - which includes psychological counselling, skills development, imparting moral values etc - in association with the Ramakrishna Math starts on July 13. Various incentive-based motivational techniques are being implemented for creating a healthy competition among prisoners to reform them.