Families of Yerwada Central Jail’s inmates have been facing extreme hardships while they wait for hours outside the prison due to a lack of basic facilities.
Due to the lack of a designated waiting area, relatives, including elderly people and children, are forced to sit on the roadside or the ground under the scorching sunlight.
The absence of these essential facilities has led to growing frustration among the visitors and they demand a solution to their inconveniences.
Yerwada jail inamtil visits his brother, lodged in the prison, from the Manjiri area at Hadapsar. Speaking to The Free Press Journal (FPJ), Patil said, “The particular area allocated for us to sit is very small compared to the large number of visitors who come. The procedure to meet inmates is lengthy. So, we are forced to wait for hours or even the whole day sometimes”. Patil added that family members are forced to wait outside and have nowhere else to sit but on the road.
Mangesh Salunke, who came to meet his brother-in-law, also highlighted the trouble senior citizens face when they come to meet the inmates.
“My father-in-law is 72 years old and cannot sit on the ground for long. The jail authorities should at least provide benches and a shaded waiting area for senior citizens,” Salunke told the FPJ. “The authorities must treat us with basic human dignity,” he added.
Women visitors suffer
The women visitors who come to meet inmates also suffer a lot of hardships due to lack of proper facilities.
Sunita Waghmare, a visitor expressed unhappiness over the lack of proper washrooms.
“There are no proper toilets, and the washroom is very dirty. It becomes difficult for women to wait. We either have to control ourselves or look for facilities that are quite far away,” Waghmare told the FPJ.
Responding to the visitors' concerns, Special IGP (Pune) Jalandhar Supekar said that they have proposed building a hall for them.
“We have proposed constructing a hall for the visitors to stay. Soon it will be done. This hall will have a sitting capacity for around 200 visitors at a time. After analysing the issue the steps have been taken. The facilities inside the jail have been better in comparison to previous days. Accordingly, the issue of the waiting area for inmates’ relatives will be resolved soon,” Supekar told the FPJ.
