Daily Excelsior... Editorial

EDITORIAL

As per the objectives stated by Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and others, Food Corporation of India is being cut to size and revamped to handle upto 10 million tons of foodgrains only.....more

Conventional models
in melting pot

By Dipta Sen

There has been increasing pres-sure on economics as a disci-pline. It seems removed from the real world and unable to predict the incessant changes that engulf organizations.......more

Revamp G P Fund
organisation

By Virinder Kishen

Human rights
violation in WB jails

By Mozaffar Islam

EDITORIAL

TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE

In the largest ever strike against the State police personal, Pak sponsored militants have brutally killed 15 cops while the number of severely injured stands at 9. In addition two medical assistants have also faced unceremonious death at the hands of blood-hounds let loose on the hapless citizens of this State. This killing comes close on the heels of ambushing senior army personnel in Anantnag district wherein one Colonel was killed and a Brigadier seriously injured besides other fatalities. The gory episode of attacking police headquarters in Srinagar killing 9 police personnel on the spot is the harsh reminder to the soft leadership that defensive and reactive approach reflects defeatist mentality. At about the same time when death dance was being performed in most brutalised manner, Home Minister L K Advani was reassuring the countrymen that ceasefire was no weakness. If this is not imbecility than what else can be termed as such. Scores of belted men are being killed by the day which clearly reflects advantage terrorists and victory for those who have trained and sustained them. While it may be true that security personnel are meant to die wherever and whenever so required in defence of the nation, surely they cannot be allowed to become guinea pigs in the unabated experimental approach of the jaundiced minds that rule the roost. You order ceasefire when security forces had clearly gained upper hand and snatched many vital initiatives from the ultras. This pressure should have been accelerated to its logical culmination i.e. end of insurgency. But our rulers derive sadistic pleasure in continued and unabated violence that consumes precious lives so recklessly.

Alright. You have ceasefire in place which is by any reckoning truly unilateral. The other side has never responded to it. In fact, it is for the umpteenth time that Muttihida Jehad Council representing 14 Pak-based terrorist outfits have told very clearly that their jehad in Kashmir would be accelerated. This means they do not hide their sinister intentions of causing as much blood spillage as they can to hog maximum limelight at all forums. They are having cash rewards for each gory episode which is proportional to the number of fatalities and damage. In the process they enhance the morale of their jehadis who continue to infiltrate with gay abandon. It is officially stated at the highest level that infiltration of jehadis is on at more or less the pre-ceasefire level. So full logistic support of men and material is available to those assigned the task of sabotaging the peace process. To be precise, they are not sabotaging peace process but hastening the process of capturing Kashmir for Pakistan. Jehad by nomenclature means 'liberation of the oppressed Muslims' in Jammu & Kashmir or anywhere in the world. So they are here to 'liberate Muslims' but kill Muslim cops, Muslim civilians like the three Bakkarwal families of the VDCs. In fact they have issued decree to all the State police cops to resign enmass or face their wrath. Incidentally, this is well within the knowledge of our political and police hierarchy. That State police personnel are amongst the prime targets for demoralising the force is something that should have been anticipated and necessary steps taken. That this has not been done stands fully established.

At this stage one has to do something more than what is already in vogue to prevent such gory massacres. It must be realised that security personnel are meant to afford protection to the life and property of the citizens. A wrong message goes when they themselves become most insecure. Obviously, such a force cannot create any confidence amongst the civilians who are thus forced to go the way edicted or desired by the ultras. In the instant case these cops had gone to provide security during the funeral of two citizens who had been killed a day earlier. Mind you 28 cops travelling in a single vehicle. What a security lapse! It was essential to split this force into groups and arrange travel in more vehicles. They should also have been well equipped with modern weapons in that they were supposed to be in vulnerable area. In the alternative, they could have asked for army cover. This means security and preventive measures continue to be lax. God alone knows when pragmatism and wisdom would dawn on the security managers and political bosses. Another obvious lacunae manifests its ugliness in that our police or even security forces continue to be without intelligence inputs. That heavily equipped ultras are around should have been enough of provocation to activate your contacts. Or is it that such of the contacts continue to be double agents with advantage ultras? If there is no intelligence, it is a poor commentry on the powers that be. If 'contacts' are there but inputs are shady, then surely such contacts are double agents. By now it is fully established that cops are on their hit list. How do you go about finishing those who are out to destroy assiduously built State police to present operational level. The password is very clear, ''Kill them or they will kill you''. While ceasefire will continue to be in place, the next best thing you can do is to fish out such of the ultras deeply entrenched. There is simply no other option. And that can best be achieved only by pro-active pre-emptive strikes based on authentic intelligence inputs. At least major portion of insurgents can thus be neutralised. And don't you forget. Nobody, neither the USA nor Great Britain or Russia would do it for you. It has to be done by India and India alone. And the sooner it is done, the better for the country. Present hostile environs are totally unacceptable.

ATTENUATED ROLE

As per the objectives stated by Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and others, Food Corporation of India is being cut to size and revamped to handle upto 10 million tons of foodgrains only. This quantity is considered adequate food security or buffer stock. The government wants that rest of the surplus in any season be it the paddy or rabi crop should be mooped by the private trade. They should build godowns for storage and sale/purchase is their business. To be precise FCI is indeed equipped to handle upto a maximum of 15 million tons foodgrains. It is indeed quite burdensome when the same organisation is asked to buy and store upto 45 million tons. No wonder most of the foodgrains are stacked in the open and covered with porous tarpaulins and that too partly. In a way, God's benevolence is playing its hand in as much as there have been hardly any rains in the areas where such large stockpiles of foodgrains in the open exist. Had it been normal winter rains, most of it would have become wet and rotten unfit even for animal's consumption. Worst still, Government money is blocked and storage charges alone come to more than Rs 5000 crore and that too if no damage is done to the stored foodgrains. Just a month hence new wheat crop would be in the market. And storage capacity cannot accept even a grain more. The Government has realised that market mechanism should be allowed to play its role and that on its own Government agencies cannot handle such gigantic task. Hence, lower rates of interests for creating godown capacity are incorporated in the budget. Despite best efforts till date India has not been able to export, sufficient surplus grains even at the heavily subsidised rate of Rs 450/- per quintal.

Conventional models in melting pot

By Dipta Sen

There has been increasing pres-sure on economics as a disci-pline. It seems removed from the real world and unable to predict the incessant changes that engulf organizations and firms. Indeed, the disappointment is not just because it has been non-predictive, but also because of its inability to understand the real world. Economics has failed us most by not being able to recommend a robust and consistent strategy to deal with these changes. Economics as a useful source for strategic solutions for organizations has been questioned time and time again. Its fidelity to reality has been a source of much accusations and mirth.

Much of the perceived failure of economics (specifically its branch microeconomics that deals with firms and individuals) in its application to real life stems from the origins of the discipline. Economics has always been expected to deliver elegantly crafted, logically and mathematically robust arguments and models of economic behaviour. This focus on mathematical rigour necessitated development of models with many assumptions. These models had to be 'simple', because interpretation of more complex models was undecipherable to even the best brains, if they had to resort to pencil and paper! This historical fact locked economic developments into increasingly detailed but ultimately a simplistic view of reality. Paradigms that did not, indeed could not, handle the complexities of real life.

Current economic paradigms can best be described as closed equilibrium systems. To illustrate, let us imagine a billiard ball on the billiard table. The ball is the economic agent- the individual or the firm (other balls are its rivals) and the sides and the shape of the table are the defining structures of the market. If you now assume that instead of being flat, the table was curved like a fruit bowl, then we can view the gravity acting on the ball as the basic economic motive of a firm-maximization of profits. This basic motivation of the firm (to maximise profits) will inexorably pull it towards the lowest point of the table.

Thus, the ball will come to rest at the bottom of the table and not move from there for eternity. Not move, that is, until a new force (e.g. a technological disruption. Schumpeter's forces of 'creative destruction') impacts either the ball or changes the shape of the table. If that happens, the ball will move and come to rest at the new 'lowest' point of the table. This equilibrium state will continue until a new force acts on the market or the firm at which point it will move to the next state of equilibrium.

This classical economist's view of 'reality' will have a strong impact on how a firm behaves. This paradigm will urge it to first understand the current structure of its market(the shape of the billiards table). Next it will try and understand the forces acting on the market (anticipate changes in the shape of the table to understand which will be the next lowest point) and then, since it wishes to maximise profits, move towards that lowest point. If it is the best at anticipating these changes, it will move to the lowest point (profit maximisation point) ahead of its competitors (other billiard balls)! How simple and elegant!

However, reality is far more complex. Firstly, there is no one force that is changing the structure of the market at a point in time. Indeed, there are countless forces some small and some great in magnitude. We need to look at the cellular phones market to underline this point. There is a positive force of increasing consumer acceptance of cellular phones, which is driving the demand. Dropping prices of the handsets and of airtime and rental is adding to this changed consumer preference. But the dropping costs of basic telephony by the extension of the local rates to a radius of 200 km and the possibility of WPP being introduced are negative forces acting on the market.

These are only the large forces that we are aware of . There are thousands of smaller forces that we are not even aware of (like consumer tastes, the evolution of Internet etc). All these forces are acting on the market (the billiard table) simultaneously changing and reshaping it furiously. To carry the analogy further, the billiard table may look more like a moon surface with large mountains and deep gorges rather than the smooth fruit bowl of economic theory! This will make it very difficult for the ball (the firm) to tell if the hole it is resting in is indeed the deepest hole (maximum profits) that there is.

The second problem arises from the assumption that all players (all the billiard balls) of the market are the same and each one will try to find the lowest point of the table. This we know is not true in reality. Some of the competitors may be large (like basket balls), while others will be tiny (like marbles), all operating in the same market. More importantly, the profit expectations of each of the firm may be different. Thus some of the billiard balls (firms) will want to go to the deepest point (maximum margins) on the table, while some firms will fit into the shallowest but widest point (maximum absolute profits).

And, therefore, the strategy they will follow will be different. The other assumption economics makes is that all firms will come to the same conclusions from the information available to them. This assumption is not true and quite often firms interpret data differently and some will not even know what is the most profitable position available for them. Finally, some firms are short-term players attempting to maximise profits quickly, while others are long-term players willing to wait a longer time for greater profits and, therefore, how quickly they want to move to the 'lowest point' will differ.

The final point of argument is that traditional economics rests heavily on the concept of diminishing returns. Simply put, this concept held that every additional unit of production (say a worker or an acre of land) used will deliver lower returns because the best workers and the best lands have already been used first and now lower quality means of production are being used. In traditional economics, this is true even for consumer preference (the next piece of chocolate will give lower pleasure than the earlier) and, therefore, impacts the valuation of goods. However, we see many examples of increasing returns in reality. Increasing returns means that every additional unit of production or good adds to the accumulated value of the earlier units.

To give an example, if the entire market comprised one cellular phone, there would be no value to the consumer at all, because who would you talk to? But if there two cellular phones then there were is some value. Interestingly, when there are four phones, the total consumer value does not double, but increases disproportionately. This is because while the number of phones has doubled, the number of possible connections has increased by 12 times! As the number of subscribers increase the, value of the network keeps on increasing disproportionately, leading to the phenomenon of increasing returns.

This leads to other positive reinforcement loops-increasing volumes lead to cheaper handsets, which brings in more users and further reduces the cost of handsets and so forth. This phenomenon can be seen in many instances not only in the new economy (the rapid growth of the Internet), but also in the old economy (the initial success of Maruti led to easy availability of its spare parts which in turn gave new consumers confidence to buy more Marutis!)

As can be seen from the above discussion, reality is very different from what economics' classical view is. Reality is more complex, dynamic and forces all players to be quicker and more adaptive to change. But is economics really dead? No! A new kind of economics is emerging, fuelled by understanding diverse fields like the Chaos. Theory, Game theory and similar disciplines. This new kind of economics argues that economies, market structures and other spheres of economic activity are 'complex adaptive systems'.

These systems are defined by three key characteristics; firstly, in this system (unlike classical economics) there are external forces constantly working. These forces could be economic, political, sociological virtually anything (much like real life). These forces constantly churn the economic system and because many of the forces are not predictable, the exact contours of the economic system may not be entirely predictable. Secondly, the economic system must comprise economic agents. These agents need to be dynamically interacting with each other. By this we mean that the agents have some simple rules for interacting with each other (sell shares if prices continue to fall). But what characterises these rules is that they are 'adaptive', that is, the agents learn from past events.

Thus the earlier rule may get modified to "sell shares if prices continue to fall. Until the level is half of its 52 week low, then buy" The third characteristic of complex adaptive system is that they "Self-organize" This means that in these systems there is no central command that is trying to put structure to the system. But the individual agents, who by themselves may not able to do much, work together in a manner that a coherent structure emerges. This is best seen in the case of the Internet where with minimal "top-down' intervention a structure and system has emerged out of the simple actions of the millions of users. Each of the users is not trying to create any structure, but a structure has emerged nevertheless. Each user is part of this system that has spontaneously evolved. It is also true that the system is independent of individual agents. Particular user may come and go, but the Internet will carry on and keep evolving.

This new field is in its infancy and will probably take a long to settle down into the disciplined body of science and for us to fully understand its application in real life. But economists, consultants and the best companies are working hard to push the boundaries of knowledge in this exciting area. As computing power becomes cheaper and even more pervasive, we can expect leaps in our understanding of how economic systems and agents within them operate. And with it will emerge a new economics to replace old paradigms.-CNF

Revamp G P Fund organisation

By Virinder Kishen

I am not sure who were the advi-sors or the consultants to the em-ployees unions when they demanded decentralisation of G P Fund. Similar is the case of Advisors and Consultants to the J&K Government who advised them on creation of the Funds organisation. But since the change over neither the employees nor the State government's Finance Department are happy. The employees are ruing the decision while the Finance Department is helpless in putting the system on rails. While poor employees can not be faulted, the Government in the Finance Department in Particular and other Departments in general are answerable. The track record of the Funds organisation has been far from desirable. The system has inherent lacunae, inefficiency and incompetence which makes it impossible for Finance Department to stem the rot. Let me enumerate a few from my experience.

Numerous A/C Numbers : A subscriber is alloted a fresh account number when ever his district changes. The allotment takes time as a result the subscription remains in suspense for months or even years. When finally alloted it becomes difficult task to trace the subscriptions., Why should not an employee be allotted a six digit account number and credits afforded to it no matter where one is posted.

Transfer of A/C. Why should a subscriber be asked to apply for transfer of his balance from one district to the other? This is the duty of the authority issuing orders of Transfer for our subscription is forced and not voluntary. The existing system makes the poor subscriber run from pilar to post to get his balance transferred. Many a time the transfer to the balance matures almost when the subscriber is to pack up for next station. Thus the exercise is to be repeated again. Not only as a subscriber to apply for transfer of balance in case of inter district but also in case of inter district transfer some-times the same exercise has to be under-taken. That an individual who was working under one DDO and transferred to another in the same organisation (Govt Medical College, Jammu ) too has to apply for transfer of balance makes system ludicrous. I have a specific instance if any one wants. Why is system so decaying that no safe guards have been provided in such simple transfers either

Incomplete A/C statements : The account statement as and when issued are never complete. Missing credits are never recorded in the relevant column designed for the purpose. Is the subscriber responsible for any derelection of duty on the part of compiler of the Funds Organisation? It appears that we invited troubles for our selves once we become GP Fund subscribers.

Back log in issue of Account statement : There is always backlog in issue of account statements. In Jammu I am told statements for 98-99 have been issued. Why not for 99-2000? The Funds organisation has no valid reason for this delay except the employees have been appointed to get pay and discharge no work. In fact we have over representation of females in the organisation who are more busy in knitting than maintaining the accounts of the subscribers. Yet Jammu represents a good picture. In case of Rajouri Funds office the accounts statement has been issued for 96-97. When will this office up date its accounts to match Jammu office is difficult to guess. A casual visit to Rajouri office reveals that more than half of the staff has been transferred with no relief provided for over one year now. I am not able to understand who will compile accounts when none is posted in substitute for transfers.

In such a situation the subscriber is the worst victim. He has to bear the brunt of inefficient system. But why should he! It is unfortunate that the Funds organisation has been conceived as simple government department with all its insufficiencies and inefficiency. It should have been conceived as a commercial department or a bank. Right from seating arrangement to delivery system needs to be made counter system. A system should be established wherein subscriber should get reply to his query just at the counter and not asked to come time and again. The present system of keeping the office out of bounds for subscriber for maximum time should be set aside. There should be maximum interaction with the subscriber at the counter. Complaints against delay promptly replied and the grievances redressal mechanism activated and made responsive to the needs of subscriber.

It would be of immense held to the organisation, if it posts its compilers at the treasury so that cases of missing credit are eliminated for ever. The compilation work should be completed in the treasury itself. This has to be done for a week's time rest work can be completed at the divisional or district offices. It is an indication of myopic vision of planners that they have not adopted office automation in the keeping and maintenance of the GP Funds. Funds are no problem for we are contributing by crores. In an era when we can book railway ticket for any destination from any where, maintaining accounts of state employees is by no means a stupendous task. But who will advise the wise-men of the organisation. The total computerisation will certainly provide more relief to the employee than what they are presently getting in the manual system of accounting.

In the end I would suggest that it is high time that the organisation is revamped by

(a) Making the Chief Funds Officer responsible for the delay in issue of account statement. The statement should specifically reflect the missing credits.

(b) The transfer of balance should be the job of concerned DDO and authority transfering employee.

(c) Only one account numbers should be alloted to the subscriber and he should have the option of having account maintained in Fund office of his choice. Credits of subscription should be made direct by the DDO under whom the employee works.

(d) Time frame should be evolved to hasten reply to queries of the subscribers. In case of next of deby in the hierarchy should be responsive.

(e) The organisation should be computerised forthwith. Till then the organisation should post compilers at the various treasures cut down the back log.

(f) The functioning of the Funds offices should be made counter system ''instead of present'' typical office of state Government'' where oil and grease is needed to move the leaf.

(g) The employee should be trained and told in very clear terms that the service is subject to their performance and pleasure of the subscribers. The subscriber are their real masters!

(h) The officers should not fight shy in getting help of the State Government employees as are willing to help for it is fact that the Funds organisation is in a very bad shape.

Will the Principal Secretary Finance and Director Funds really look to this problem is a million dollar question. Let us hope better sense will prevails upon them.

Human rights violation in WB jails

By Mozaffar Islam

In West Bengal, there are 53 jails in which around 10,000 priso-ners, undertrials and convicts are lodged. Several annual reports of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission (WBHRC) indicate how jail employees indulge in corrupt practices, harass and torture the prisoners and violate their human rights. In fact, corruption and human rights abuse inside the jails go hand in hand.

On a petition submitted by some inmates of Alipore Central Jail the West Bengal Human Rights Commission undertook an investigation into the life-style of prisoners as also on the jail administration. Its findings reveal shocking facts. Fifty percent of prisoners' wages is deducted by the jailor to run the jail. The rest is deposited with the convict's Personal Ledger (PL) account which is poorly maintained. In some jails where there is no provision for PL accounts, the money is kept with the jailor. Many convicts do not get their money when they are released. The Commission recorded some cases of misappropriation of convicts' money and wrote to the Government saying, ''We don't understand why prisoners' wages should be used by the administration. The stock reply we received from the jail superintendent was that the money sanctioned by the government was too little to suffice.'' The Jail Minister's reply was, ''This has been in practice since the British era.''

On investigation the state panel found, ''a convict, an unskilled labourer, gets Rs 1.50, a skilled labourer Rs 2.00, a semi-skilled labourers Rs 1.75, a medium labourer, Rs 1.00 and a light labourer, Rs 0.80 each day for working in jails. But very few convicts are skilled labourers. Very often the wages (saved in PL accounts) are not paid at the time of release.''

In another report to the government, the Commission said, ''some convicts are paid a small portion of the money they earned and told to collect the rest later. This is ostensibly done on the ground that the bill for the amount could not be drawn from the treasury due to administrative exgiencies. Many prisoners do not turn up to collect their wages. There is possibility of non-payment of dues or its supposed payment by forging the signature or substituting thumb impression. The fact that prisoners don't get their earnings is proved by the huge unclaimed money and valuables are not returned. ''Dum Dum Central jail had ''unclaimed money and valuables worth Rs 45, 744.68, Bankura district jail, Rs 2,115, Hooghly jail, Rs 30,000, Krishnagar, Malda Purulia and Alipore Central jails Rs 12,972, Rs 1,319 and Rs 54,330 respectively,'' the report said.

The State panel recommended, after deduction of food expenses, three types of daily wages viz Rs 6.00 for unskilled labour, Rs 10.00 for semi-skilled and Rs 16 for skilled labourers. When the Left Front Government of West Bengal moved the Kolkata High Court against the recommended wages, the Court endorsed its recommendation.

Again the Government appealed the Supreme Court which upheld High Court's order and directed the West Bengal administration to implement immediately the wage increase. Thus the convicted prisoners, the most isolated and ill-fated section of society, will now, due to WBHRC's initiative, get higher rates of wages.

The National Human Rights Commission has reaffirmed the principle that ''timely and proper medical diagnosis and treatment is the inherent right of the prisoner. Hence the prison authorities are under duty to provide the reasonable degree of care and facility. Prisoners do retain their fundmaental rights though their liberty is taken away in jails.''

But in most jails medical service and food for inmates are poor. In sub-divisional jails, there is no regular medical office and each district jail is looked after by one doctor only. As a result patients are put to serious hardship and at times die due to lack of timely treatment.

The State's Human Rights Commission's annual report for 1995-96 pointed out many glaring malpractices in jails. It stated, ''There is lack of amenities in jail hospitals and even the resident medical officers/medical staff are reluctant to provide medical aid to prisoners who fall ill. The lack of medical facilities in important jails such as Presidency Jail is quite alarming. From organised theft of medicines to wage misappropriation, the jail employees are involved in a wide variety of rackets. Security staff extort money for allowing relatives of prisoners to meet their people. The latter have no channel to address their grievances.'' The report further said; ''The Commission was alarmed to notice that in Alipore Central Jail and Presidency Jail there are wardens who have not been disturbed from their posts for over a decade and a half.. what is most unfortunate is that the jail administration while effecting transfers do not disturb members of the central committee of the Kara Rakshi Samity and office-bearers of the Circle committee. Clear guideline to this effect appear to have been issued... The malpractices rampant in the jails draw sustenance from these administrative anomalies''. It also indicated that corruption is prevalent even among senior police officers of the jail administration. In 1999, the jail directorate filed an FIR against one jail superintendent in Calcutta on charges of misappropriating several lakhs of rupees by submitting false vouchers.

In 1999, Justice Mukul Gopal Mukherjee, Chairman, WBHRC visited various jails and heard complaints from prisoners about poor medical care and meals. He expressed surprise to see for himself poor quality meals, a particularly rice and vegetables, being served to inmates. He asked the jail directorate to improve the quality of rice and vegetables for them and increase the number of medical officers and medical equipment in all jails.

On complaints made by an undertrial about corrupt practices, the State Human Rights Commission carried out an investigation and noticed several irregularities in the running of Midnapore Central Jail. Its report says: ''Inmates' relatives are forced to pay money to jail staff at the gates, rates vary from Rs 40.00 to Rs 60.00. The amount is doubled if visitors happen to come after 12 noon. The amount is doubled if visitors happen to come after 12 noon. The undertrials are forced to work except those who pay money to jail employees. Jail staff had been visiting houses of prisoners after obtaining letters from them to collect money from thier relatives under threat. ''Medicines meant for inmates were also sold out by some staff on a regular basis. Food of inmates are shared by the jail staff. Rice, dal,oil and other food items are sold in the market. The jail code is not being followed.. New inmates were victims of sodomy''. Another glaring irregularity noticed by the State panel is that convicts and prison staff at Berhampore Central Jail were running a 'Hotel' on jail premises.

It is the undertrial prisoners whose rights are most abused by jail employees. The undertrials outnumber the convicts in most prisons. Out of 10,000 inmates, 2,500 have actually been convicted and 7,500 prisoners, including 350 women are undertrials. Overcrowding is a serious problem; they are packed together in cells with little space to sleep. Moreover, most of them are anguishing for years behind bars without trial. Many are there languishing for years behind bars without trial. Many are there because the police failed to file charge-sheets in time; the stipulated time to file them varies from 24 hours to two years after the arrest. According to the principal Secretary (Jail) A K Pantaik, ''A large number of undertrial are charged with offences like stealing a goat or a pumpkin. They spend more time in jails than what the law prescribes for these crimes. Those accused in petty cases are beaten by hardcore criminals. Their relatives are forced to pay them for their safety. Sometimes, a section of jail employees connives with these touts to extort money from the undertrial.''

That state panel in its report of 1997-98 highlighted some serious cases of extortion, including the case of an undertrial, Paresh Chandra Dutta. He was asked to pay by jail staff Rs 500 to buy cigaretts and bidies. On refusal, he was severely assaulted by the prisoner-in-charge of the wards and later died.

Further, to keep the acused in jail without framing of chargesheets within a reasonable period, say six months, is a gross miscarriage of justice which is fact amounts to violation of human righs.

These stories clearly show prisoners are treated like animals and their human rights thrown to the winds. As such some of them try to commit suicide, break jails and try to escape to save themselves from inhuman environment. Thanks to the West Bengal Human Rights Commission the state administration came to know about the miserable conditions of prisoners through its various reports. It has actually opened the eyes of the Government towards the genuine problems of jail inmates. The Government also has taken remedial measures. Few corrupt practices have been rooted out and prisoners have got some relief.

PTI Feature