Chandigarh:
The Punjab government on Monday ordered a probe into the alleged role of the Bathinda Prison Jail Warden in selling of drugs to prisoners.
Punjab Jails Minister Sarwan Singh Phillaur had ordered the probe against Jail Warden Nachattar Singh, an official release said.
Mr Singh was recently caught while allegedly selling drugs to prisoners in connivance with a jail inmate.
A case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act had already been registered at the Civil Lines Police Station in Bathinda in this connection.
The release quoting the Minister said that the authorities were fully geared to tackle the menace of drug smuggling in jails.
A hawk eye was being kept on activities of the jail authorities and inmates, the Minister said adding the "nexus" between drug peddlers and prison officials would be broken.
Mr Phillaur said that the modern jails would be set-up in Amritsar, Muktsar, Ferozepur and Bathinda districts on the pattern of Kapurthala prison.
The total cost of the project would be around Rs 500 crore, the release said.
De-addiction centres are being set up in jails and as many as 200 inmates of Kapurthala prison had been cured with the help of counseling and medicines.
The government would also set up eight more prison houses having de-addiction centres, the release said.