As many as 27 jails in Odisha are bereft of adequate medical facilities in terms of hospital beds, minimum equipment and full time medical officers besides shortage of mental healthcare personnel and counsellors for rendering proper care and attention.

The Orissa High Court hearing a petition on discrepancies and mismanagement in State’s prisons on Wednesday called for upgradation of the existing healthcare facilities.

“The Director General of Police (Prisons) will constitute a special “implementation committee” to ensure that each of the deficiencies pointed out in the reports of the Secretaries of the DLSAs and in the detailed note of the Amicus Curiae is rectified on an urgent basis”, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Dr. S. Muralidhar and Justice R.K. Pattanaik directed.

In addition it is pointed out that the visit to the Special Jail at Rourkela revealed that there were as many as 54 inmates who required psychiatric care; there is only one Psychiatric Specialist visiting the jail and that too only once in a month.

The inmates are being taken all the way to Veer Surendra Sai (VSS) Medical College, Burla for check up and regular medicines. The learned Amicus Curiae urges that the visit of the Psychiatric Specialist should be more frequent perhaps once in a week considering the large number of inmates requiring care and attention, the HC order pointed out.

The Board of Visitors (BoVs) of every jail, including the District Jail, Sub-Jail, Central Jail etc. will immediately convene in the next three days to take stock of all that has been pointed out in the report of the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) submitted with regard to the jail.

The Secretaries, DLSAs are requested to submit a follow up report again accompanied by the photographs to this Court in this regard. It is made clear that if there is any breach of the directions in this order, the jailor of the concerned Sub-Jail, District Jail and Special Jail etc. will be liable for disobedience of the directions of this Court and can be proceeded against for contempt of Court.