State to introduce in-house radio network in all 6 central correctional homes

Kolkata: The state Correctional Administration department will introduce in-house radio network in all the six central correctional homes in the state.

The move comes after the department found tremendous excitement among the prison inmates after a similar radio network was launched a few days ago at Dum Dum Central Correctional Home (DDCCH).

"Music has a soothing and relaxing effect on a person's mind and the prisoners are no exception. Selected prison inmates will be trained to become radio jockeys and they will be anchoring musical programmes during a certain period of the day, which will be aired in a manner so that all the inmates of that correctional home can listen," said Ujjal Biswas, state Correctional Administration minister.

Biswas said that the department has plans to introduce such facilities in all 57 correctional homes in the state, including the central correctional homes. In DDCCH, five of the inmates have been trained as radio jockeys and the internal radio station is active 10 hours a day, with these inmates anchoring music programmes. Anchors from a reputed private FM channel have imparted training to the five radio jockeys of DDCCH.

"We have selected the inmates on the basis of their performances in cultural programmes held from time to time in the prison premises. Ten of the inmates were selected by us and from there, five made it to the final list. The training was held for around three months," a senior official of the department said.

A compilation of 3,500 songs of different genres of music have been made, which will be aired in a phase-wise manner amidst the anchoring of the radio jockeys.

Manua Majumdar, who is serving life imprisonment on charges of scripting her husband's cold blooded murder with the help of her lover in May 2017 and Debjani Mukherjee, accused in the multi-crore Saradha financial scandal, are among the two radio jockeys in DDCCH.