VISAKHAPATNAM: The recent encounter in which eight activists of the banned Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) died after escaping from the Bhopal Central Prison in Madhya Pradesh has brought the issue of security in the prisons in Andhra Pradesh to the fore.
Despite being fortified by three-layer security walls and live wire, the Vizag Central Prison, which has 1,302 inmates including the convicted and remand prisoners, appears to be lagging behind when it comes to CCTV camera surveillance.
At present, the jail has only five CCTVs -three at the entrance and two in the mulaqaat block. The proposals of installing 54 CCTV cameras on the 101-acre premises which was mooted two and a half years ago is yet to get the approval of the government.
The government had shifted the central prison from the present VUDA Central Park land to a spacious and thick greenery location near Krishnapuram belonging to the Simahachalam temple and constructed an open air jail with all the facilities and amenities.
The prison with the capacity of 980 inmates is always crowded with more than 1,000 prisoners. The facility has three stages of security under round-the-clock supervision of armed forces.
The superintendent and deputy superintendents chambers are in vantage positions from where the entire premises can be checked from balconies.
The prison has a six-foot outer boundary wall dotted with seven 30-foot watchtowers. Equipped with advanced communication equipment, 54 armed Andhra Pradesh Special Police personnel guard the prison 24/7. The second-level boundary wall is 18-foot high with three feet of live wire running through it. Some of the inside blocks have live wire fencing too.
However, to give the security arrangement more teeth, a command control room was mooted with installation of 54 CCTV cameras covering the entire 101-acre prison two and a half years ago. But, the proposal is gathering dust for the reasons best known to the authorities.
The jail authorities admit that with the grounding of the command control room with 54 CCTV cameras, supervision will be more effective.
“After the Madhya Pradesh incident, the government has alerted the prison officials on security arrangements. With fortified security and live wire fencing, this prison is very secure,” said K Rajeswara Rao, deputy superintendent of the Vizag Central Prison.