Central Jail overcrowded, courtesy ongoing campaign against drugs

The Central Jail, Ludhiana, located on Tajpur Road, has been facing a crisis in accommodating inmates. The reason for the same is the ongoing campaign against drugs of the Punjab Police, ‘Yudh Nashian Virudh’. The jail is now overcrowded, exceeding the capacity of housing of inmates.

Receiving 50-60 inmates daily

As per information, the Central Jail on an average receives about 50 to 60 inmates everyday and surprisingly, most of the inmates being nabbed nowadays are apprehended in drug peddling cases. Most of the inmates being caught in the campaign are with small drug quantities, adding to the numbers of occupants indiscreetly.

About-one-and-a-half month ago, the Central Jail had also stopped accepting inmates as a number of occupants inside the jail had reached over 4,700. The inmates had then been sent to the Goindwal jail by the Police Department and even police officials faced huge inconvenience in transporting criminals by covering over 100 km distance. Sometimes, the police could not complete formalities on time and fail to take criminals to the Goindwal jail.

As per jail officials, the Central Jail has a capacity of housing about 3,200 inmates but at present, it has about 4,300 persons, hence making it difficult for the jail authorities to manage the situation. Even from the security point of view, managing such a huge number of inmates in the jail is a serious challenge for the authorities.

“Since the state’s campaign against drugs is going on at large scale, the average number of inmates being received at the jail daily is about 50 to 60. However, prior to the campaign, the Central Jail used to receive about 20 to 30 inmates only. Since a few criminals also get bail everyday, the count used to remain balanced but the campaign has literally led to overcrowding of the jail,” the officials said.

The Central Jail accommodates persons arrested by the Ludhiana police, Ludhiana rural police, Khanna police and Nawanshahr police.

Shivraj Singh Nandgarh, Superitendent of the Central Jail, told The Tribune here on Monday that the jail was overcrowded and the department had been managing the rush of inmates in a challenging way. The summer season further adds to the woes as the inmates have to settle themselves in the available space in the barracks. “We had stopped accepting inmates in the first week of April and they were then being sent to the Goindwal jail,” the official said.

However from May 1, we have again started accepting inmates as the Goindwal jail has also been overcrowded,” he said.

Notably, a similar situation was witnessed in 2024 when the Central Jail had refused to accept inmates.

Ludhiana