Working conditions poor, cops dread jail posting

Patiala, Few police officials are willing to serve in the Jail Department as superintendent, thanks to ills afflicting the state prisons. Threat by gangsters, lack of infrastructure and shortage of staff are among the drawbacks.
This is evident from the fact that after posting as jail superintendent, many proceed on leave or use their connections to get posting elsewhere. At present, three central jails in the state are without a superintendent-level officer, as the ones named have refused to join.
Information gathered by The Tribune revealed that the officers sent on deputation as jail superintendents have proceeded on leave and are yet to join their posting almost a fortnight after the orders.
They are Jaspal Singh Hans (Faridkot), Shamsher Singh Boparai (Ludhiana) and SS Mand (Amritsar). The only exception is PPS officer Ranbir Uppal, who is serving as Gurdaspur jail superintendent. In central jails, only an SSP-rank officer holds the post of superintendent. Earlier last month, a senior IPS officer also sought exemption from jail posting. In 2016, three PPS officers had refused to join Kapurthala and Gurdaspur jails.
An official said: “I do not want to serve in jails where gangsters threaten you openly and there are no weapons or vehicles. It is a sedentary job and demands undivided attention without any reward.”
There are nine central jails, 12 district and six sub jails in the state. Even 16 deputy jail superintendents, who were given postings in 2016, only five joined. There is thus a dearth of officers in the Jail Department. Even at the junior level, the department has 1,300 vacancies of the total 2,450 sanctioned posts.
A senior jail official said: “Even the jail-cadre officers are not happy as they have lower pay-scales as compared to the police. In case of any recovery from prisoners, they are always at the risk of facing departmental action.”
Some officers cited increasing political pressure for giving preferential treatment to certain prisoners as a major drawback.
Refuting the claims, DIG (Jails) LS Jakhar said the officers would join soon and there was no problem on that front. Additional DGP (Prisons) IPS Sahota was unavailable for comments.