Bihar jails bursting at its seams

The Bihar administration arrested 15,000 people in the first month of the President's rule in an effort to establish law and order in the state.

However, this move has left the prisons overcrowded. The prisons across the state have a capacity to accommodate nearly 21,750 prisoners. However, the present number of inmates totals to 38,000.

This is causing food and lodging problems, Director, Jails, B C P Singh said.

In speedy compliance of the Patna High Court order to arrest persons absconding for the past few years despite arrest warrants and property attachment orders against them, over 15,000 people were either arrested or surrendered, as per the affidavit filed by the state government in the court on March 30.

Some of the prisons were already facing space crunch and infrastructural shortcomings.

In Beur model jail in Patna, against a sanctioned capacity of lodging 1,608 prisoners, about 2,600 were put there. In addition to this, 300 more caught during the recent drive were send there, jail superintendent Dilip Kumar said.

The condition in prisons of Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga, Motihari, Madhepura and other districts was no better.