The Union Home Ministry has cleared a proposal to install mobile jammers in seven prisons across Chhattisgarh which have Naxalites as inmates. The Government has approved Rs 5.07 crore for the project which will be initiated by installing a hi-tech mobile jammer in Jagdalpur Central Prison in Bastar. The move is part of the efforts to avoid the repeat of Dantewara jail break incident in which 299 inmates, including 100 alleged Maoists, fled on December 16 last year.

Director General of Police (Prisons) S K Paswan said the process of installing mobile jammers will begin next month. “Electronics Corporation of India Limited, Hyderabad, will undertake the task of installing jammers at Jagdalpur prison, followed by Raipur, Dantewara, Kanker, Ambikapur, Katghora and Korba,” Paswan said, adding that the prisons not covered in this phase, will be taken up at a later stage. There are 25 prisons in the state — five Central prisons, 15 sub-jails and five district jails.

The step follows the Union Home Ministry’s directive to seven Naxal-infested states — Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh — after the Dantewara jail break, to improve the security situation in the prisons. The Home Secretaries and DGP (Prisons) of the seven states were instructed to ensure a tighter security for prisons housing Maoists.