Talking to Republica, Leela Gurung, an official at the District Administration Office said there is no prison in the district while the prisons in the other districts are not willing to take inmates citing lack of space. [break]
“Jails in other districts straightaway refused to accommodate the prisoners, due to which, the custody here has been extremely crowded for the last two months,” he said. While in prison, the prisoners are entitled to ration, among other facilities, which they do not get in police custody.
The Maoists had destroyed the prison at the headquarters on 4 March 2005 at the height of insurgency. Reconstruction of the building did begin after the peace process began, but the work is yet to finish.
Until a few months back, inmates from Ilam were sent to the jails in Jhapa, Sunsari and Panchthar. Even if the jail in Ilam is rebuilt, the jail cannot accommodate the growing number of convicts.
The number of convicts is growing in the district because the police now have easy access to remote villages where the criminals take refuge.
Accommodating convicts is not the problem facing Ilam district alone. The number of prisoners is also rapidly increasing in Taplejung, Panchthar and Jhapa. There are 593 inmates in Jhapa while the capacity of the prison is only 200.
Similarly, the prison in Panchthar is overcrowded with 132 inmates though it has capacity of only 25. In Taplejung, 85 persons have been sharing the space enough to accommodate only 25.
“The number of prisoners has been growing,” said Chief Jailor of Panchthar Jail Renu Prasad Ojha. “We can manage not accommodate more inmates,” he added. Ojha further stressed that the existing prisons are in acute need of renovation.
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