J&K to start ‘e-mulaqat’ for 220 detenues lodged in 6 jails of UP

In a first, DG prisons reaches out to prisons in Lucknow

JAMMU: In a first ever since their detention in the run-up to August 5 developments and subsequent shifting outside Jammu and Kashmir, the administration reached out to detenues lodged in prisons of Uttar Pradesh and initiated the implementation of its ‘e-mulaqat’ program, through which the prisoners will be able to interact with their family members through video conferencing.
Among hundreds of detenues taken into custody after the Centre abrogated Jammu and Kashmir’s special status under Article 370 of the Constitution and bifurcated the state into Union territories in August last year, as many as 220 detenues from Jammu and Kashmir are lodged in six jails of Uttar Pradesh.
On Sunday, Jammu and Kashmir Police’s Director General of Prisons V K Singh visited Uttar Pradesh and interacted with 17 detenues from the Union Territory who are lodged in the Lucknow district jail.
The DG Prisons visited prison headquarters Lucknow where he was informed about the working of the headquarters which supervises 72 jails of Uttar Pradesh accommodating more than one lakh inmates.
Singh interacted with the 17 detenues from Jammu and Kashmir lodged in the Lucknow district jail and enquired about their health and other facilities being provided to them, an official spokesman said.
He was informed that the detenues are regularly allowed to meet their relatives and regular health check-ups are conducted, the spokesman said.
Appreciating the efforts of UP jail authorities, Singh took up with them the matter regarding "e-mulaqat" to enable Kashmir-based relatives to interact with the detenues lodged in UP jails over video-conference.
It may be recalled that the UT administration had introduced ‘e-mulaqat’ on January 1, this year, so as to enabling easy meeting of the family members of the inmates lodged in different jails of Jammu and Kashmir.
In the UT, the facility is aimed to make it simpler for relatives who don’t stay in the same city where the inmates are lodged in the jail and is available ‘jail to jail’.
For example, if a Kashmiri prisoner is lodged in a Jammu jail, his family members back in Valley had to travel long to meet him, earlier. But now, the family simply has to move to a nearby jail in Valley and avail the service.
In J&K, two central jails, nine district jails, two sub jails and one special jail are connected through e-mulaqat. These are Central Jail Kotbhalwal, Central Jail Ambphalla, District Jails in Kathua, Udhampur, Rajouri, Kishtwar, Bhaderwah, HIranagar and Reasi—all in Jammu region; and Central Jail Srinagar, District Jails in Baramulla, Kupwara and Anantnag in Kashmir region, and Special Jail (correctional Home) in Pulwama.