TWO decades seems a long time. Long enough for the world order to change, for a new generation to take over the baton from the preceding one, for the consumer price index to shoot up many times over. But for the jailors in Uttar Pradesh, time seems to stand still.
For the last twenty years, the salary of these jailers has not been revised, their weapons not updated and their homes left unprotected.
This was adequately exemplified when three fleeing inmates of Azamgarh jail assaulted the jailer, Deep Singh, for refusing to grant them special privileges.
On August 22, the jailor breathed his last at a hospital in Varanasi. His only fault was that he was making efforts to discipline the rowdy jailbirds.
This is no stray incident. Criminals overpowering the men in khakhi is but common and the attacks on jailers are increasing by the day.
But what seems pathetic is the fact that the state government is unmoved by Deep Sagar’s death and has still not woken up to the need for welfare of the jail officials.
The death, combined with the apathy of the government, has sent shock waves throughout the state and further piled up the pressure on hapless jail officials.
‘‘Without proper security and a respectable salary, the jail officials are living in constant fear. This in turn, has led to the decline in their morale,’’ says UP Jailer Association secretary, Shashi Kant Mishra.
Another senior jail official echoed the same sentiment.
‘‘How can the government expect jail officials to perform their duty properly, without giving them a proper security cover and a proper salary?’’ According to sources, the salary issue of the jailers was first raised in 1980, following which a committee was formed by the government in 1983 to probe into the issue.
The committee, after surveying the entire state, submitted its report to the government in 1986, which stated that the jail officials were being ignored and measures should be taken to provide adequate security to them and hike their pay.
In fact, the jailers and deputy jailers are still drawing the same salary they were drawing in 1983, while on the other hand, inspectors and sub-inspectors, who were also on the same scale, have been given a proper hike. (See box)
According to sources, in 1979, the salary structure of a BDO, a tehsildar and a jailer were equal, but now there is a vast difference. Similarly, on the issue of security, the basic demands of jailers for service revolvers, security guards and night patrolling at their residential campus are still to be met.
On an average, every year nearly one jail official is attacked or killed. Sources claim that after the murder of Lucknow District Jail superintendent R K Tiwari in 1998, the then Chief Minister Kalyan Singh announced that gns will be provided to all state jailers and superintendents, but nothing has been done in that direction till date.
A few days ago, during the jail officials’ monthly meeting, the UP Jailer’s Association contributed nearly Rs 3 lakh for the family of Deep Sagar Singh. That and the donation of blood by 20 prisoners of Varanasi District Jail to save Singh, stands out in stark comparision to the lackadaisical attitude of the government.
One wonders how many more Deep Singhs are needed to make the government effectively better the lot of the jailers, who stake their everything while guarding dreaded criminals within the high walls of the prisons.