35 years on, Mandoli Jail awaits clearance of security norms

The 68.4 acre Mandoli Jail will lodge around 3,800 prisoners. The prime purpose of constructing a new jail complex is to decongest the prisoners lodged in various jails including Tihar and also to save travel time between jail complexes and the courts.  

The boundary walls of the complex is only 12 feet high. However, as per the norms, the walls must be 18 feet or above. The watch tower inside the complex is only 6 feet that should be more than 24 feet. The height of a watch tower should be more than the height of the boundary walls.

  

The concerned authorities have claimed that they are looking into the matter and it will be resolved soon. However, the work has not begun yet.  

As the whole complex that includes six wards is fully air-conditioned, it has glass windows. These windows can easily be broken by prisoners either to escape or to make a weapon from the glass. Also, telephone jammers have not been installed in the complex.  

Unauthorised colonies have developed at the outskirts of the complex as well. Ideally, no building or construction is allowed till 15 meters from the complex. But now, apart from three-storeyed buildings, a 10-storeyed building has been constructed adjacent to the complex. If you stand on the terrace of these buildings, you can get a full view of the jail complex.  

The purpose of making the new jail complex was to reduce the probability of prisoners fleeing while being taken to the courts. However, sources told Millennium Post: “Now, the prisoners lodged in other jails will be shifted according to their names’ initials as the crime graph in Eastern range is comparatively high and so region-wise criminals cannot be differentiated.”

Initially in 1981, around 78 acre was allotted for the complex but as the project has missed several deadlines, around 10 acre of the land was acquired by the police to construct a police colony. When the project was started, around Rs 145 crore was allotted and now the budget has crossed from Rs 350 crore.

 The Mandoli Jail complex will lodge around 3,800 prisoners. Currently, more than 14,000 inmates are lodged in Tihar Jail against its capacity of 5,200 inmates, while the prison in Rohini jail is nearly 6,000 against a capacity of a meagre 1,050.