The health department and prison department officials recently met to work on submitting two proposals to the government: one, for the health department to staff hospitals in central prisons and district prisons, while the facilities remain under the prison department so as to avoid administrative hurdles; two, for the health department to take over the prison hospitals.
There are nine central prisons (eight for men and one for women), and 21 district prisons (13 of them have hospitals).
Out of the 114 sanctioned posts for medical staff, 74 posts are yet to be filled. Health department officials said while the High Court (HC) has ordered that these posts be filled immediately, the state human rights commission (SHRC) is in favour of the department taking over the prison hospitals. The final call has to be taken by the state government.
Health commissioner D Randeep told DH, “A joint meeting of the health and the prison departments was held on December 1. The way ahead was discussed. A decision will be taken after the legislature session in Belagavi. We will seek the government’s advice on either fully staffing prison hospitals with doctors and staff from the health and family welfare department or completely taking over the prison hospitals.”
An official said, “While the HC talks about filling up vacant posts, the SHRC favours the takeover of hospitals, which requires the government’s approval.” There are around 15,000 inmates in the state’s prisons.
Deputy inspector general of prisons Anand Reddy, who was part of the meeting, did not respond to DH’s calls.
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