Arunachal jail gets first prisoners

F
ifteen minutes before noon on Tuesday, murder accused Majboor Rehman became the first of 19 under-trial prisoners (UTPs) in judicial custody to ‘inaugurate’ the first jail in Arunachal Pradesh.

Rehman, though, would have been robbed of his dubious distinction had felons of various shades not made off with the furnishings of the seven-acre district jail five years ago.

Under pressure from civil rights activists for keeping UTPs in unhygienic, overcrowded lock-ups, the state government had a decade ago sought funds from New Delhi to establish jails. The Centre obliged in 2000, releasing Rs 10 crore under the 11th Finance Commission to construct two jails and seven sub-jails.

The district jail at Jully Basti, located 6 km from state capital Itanagar was completed in 2004. Somehow, the government could not manage to get a VVIP from New Delhi to inaugurate it. And in these five years, thieves took away almost everything in the jail — from window frames to electrical fittings.

The wait to have the jail inaugurated ended on Tuesday with Rehman moving in as the first of 19 registered prisoners. “They were shifted from Itanagar police station, but not before we renovated the jail at an expenditure of Rs 20 lakh,” jail superintendent Michi Paku told HT from Itanagar.

The jail at Jully Basti, Paku added, has 50 blocks. Ten of these are for women.

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Nagaland PCC apprise Sonia on drought relief measures

C
ongress leaders from Nagaland have met party President and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi and apprised her about the situation arising out of drought-like condition in the state.

A delegation led by NPCC President K V Pusa and CLP leader Chingwang Konyak on Thursday submitted an assessment report on drought relief measures in Nagaland, which had experienced drought-like situation during monsoon adversely affecting agricultural activities in the state.

Pusa said the Congress chief appreciated the initiatives in assessing the state’s requirements and assured them to examine the report so that the drought affected people could avail some relief schemes.

"The union government and the UPA Chairperson would like to see that this time funds reach the targeted people and do not go to the pockets of a handful of people who are in power," he claimed.

Seeing the track records of the DAN government in implementation of development schemes, the Pradesh Congress took initiative to make the assessment of drought relief measures and decided to take up the matter with the central leaders as how some mechanism could be put in place so that real affected farmers get the benefits from the Centre, NPCC president said.

Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio recently met the state Congress leaders and assured them that the drought relief funds would not be 'misused' this time and all affected farmers, irrespective of political affiliations, would get the equal share.

While submitting its report to the centre, the state government estimated the drought relief measures at Rs 74 crore while the Pradesh Congress put the state’s requirement at about Rs 100 crore after visiting all the districts of Nagaland recently.

After the visit, the NPCC alleged that the NREGA funds were not properly utilized in many parts of the state and the ruling dispensation was only doling out money to its party workers and supporters without creating any sustainable rural assets.

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