Telephone booths to be installed in all central prisons in Tamil Nadu

Tiruchirappalli: In a bid to end smuggling in of cellphones and Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards inside central jails in Tamil Nadu, telephone booths will be installed in all such prisons.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited would work with Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT) to install the phones in the prisons, which would help about 20,000 inmates, officials of the companies said.

They said government had ordered provision of 54 booths in these prisons and in special prisons for women, besides in Borstal School at Pudukottai at a cost of Rs 1.58 crore.

Stating that the number of booths would vary from prison to prison, they said inmates would be allowed calls only to close relatives for which cards would be provided. This facility would end smuggling of cellphones and SIM cards to the Prison and also prevent crowding of visitors, they said.

V Ramalingam, a Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited official said they had been approached for providing the facility.

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A Madurai Prison official said Inmates had been told to give numbers of relatives, which would be cross checked and finally approved by an official in the rank of Inspector. Phone booths would be linked such that conversations would be recorded.

Asked how the prisoners would make the payment, officials said the money would be deducted from their cash property.

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A survey has said at least five or six phones are seized every month in various prisons during raids.