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Tihar prisoners to get landline telephone connections
Tihar Jail is set to become prisoner-friendly.
Within two months, prisoners at Tihar will get landline telephone connections to call their near and dear ones.
The information was shared by the Delhi government counsel in a Public Interest Litigation filed by former IPS officer Ravi Kant Sharma. Sharma, who is serving a jail term for murdering journalist Shivani Bhatnagar, had written to the court asking for the facility.
Listening to the case, the division bench of Chief Justice AP Shah and Justice Muralidhar directed the Delhi government to take necessary steps to install the facility within two months.
But the service comes with a rider it offers incentives to those who are in jail for petty crimes. However, repeated offenders will not be favoured.
Appearing before the court, government counsel Meera Bhatiya said first-time offenders will be allowed phone facilities once a week, while others will be allowed to make calls once in a fortnight.
"Habitual offenders and high-risk criminals will not be allowed to use the telephones. While we are trying to make things better for the prisoners we also have to think about security and leak of important information," said Public Relation Officer (PRO), Tihar Prisons, Sunil Gupta.
Rs 15 lakh
Is the cost of the phone system
Talk time
The call duration has been fixed at three to five minutes and the prisoners will be issued pre-paid cards to use the phones. The jail authority is also making an assessment of the number of connections required to avoid chaos. "There are so many prisoners and there could be a long waiting time at the phones. So we may need more than one connection in every jail. But these modalities will be decided in the due course of time," said a
senior jail official, wishing anonymity. | 
