'Namma' inmates are jailed, but connected

The state government conceded on Monday that prisoners lodged in the Central Jail and other jails possess mobile phones and even make international calls.

BJP MLC Lahar Singh Siroya raised the issue and most of the opposition members joined him.

Home minister R Ashoka said: “The Intelligence Bureau (IB) had confirmed that calls from state prisons were made to other countries. After this, a meeting was held under the chairmanship of chief minister DV Sadananda Gowda. He had sanctioned `9 crore for installing mobile phone jammers in the Bangalore central jail.”

Ashoka said that about 3,000-4,000 mobile phones have been seized from the prisons across the state. A squad under led by a deputy superintendent had been formed to conduct raid every week in the prisons. He is on job already, he added.

The minister also said that after the calls from prison were traced to other countries, the inmates were identified and moved to separate cells.

Prisons minister A Narayanaswamy added that officers who have stayed at one location for more than eight years have been transferred, as there was a chance of their collusion with prisoners.

“We have asked for 800-strong Central Industrial Security Force to check irregularities in jails,” he said. He also announced that new jails would be built in Bangalore, Mysore and Bellary.
Ashoka informed the council that a survey had been ordered to identify and remove weak trees in the city that pose danger to the public.

“Environmentalists are creating problems, but we will find a way,” he said.