BENGALURU: If all goes according to the plan, the Kalaburagi central prison in the state would be the first prison in India to get 4G mobile phone signal jammers. As of now, all jails in the country are equipped with 3G or 2G mobile phone signal jammers.
The Kalaburagi prison has 10 mobile jammers to block 3G signals. Recently, the government has issued an order to release `83.58 lakh to the prison department to pay to the Electronics Corporation of India Limited, a Government of India Enterprise, which had provided the jammers. In the order, a condition is laid that the payment should be made only after the devices are upgraded to 4G mobile signal jammers and a report is submitted to the government about the action taken.
One of the sources in the prison department said that the process would take time to be implemented.“It is far-fetched as the project will take time. Also, the provider would also ask for more funds to upgrade 3G jammers to 4G. By the time the project takes off, many months will be passed,” an official said, adding that years after installing jammers at Kalaburagi prison, it started functioning only a few months ago due to technical issues.
However, the prison staff have welcomed the move as it has become a headache for them to stop inmates using phones in the jails.“Many inmates use 4G network and make calls to their families and in some cases have made extortion calls as well. The 3G jammers cannot block 4G signals and inmates are using it to their advantage.
The only prevention is that we should ensure no inmate sneaks in mobile phones to barracks. Despite thorough checks and raids, some manage to get hold of mobile phones. If the 4G jammers are in place, the menace can be tackled,” an official in the Parappana Agrahara central prison said.