Vijayapura: The decision taken to allow the relatives and friends of the jail inmates to meet personally at the District Central Prison from December 1, has been withdrawn following the reports of the spreading of new Covid-19 variant.
It may be noted that after the Covid pandemic hit the nation and lockdown was imposed, the Prison Department had taken the decision to suspend the personal meeting of relatives with inmates at the central prison to prevent the spreading of Covid among the inmates. The physical meeting of the relatives had remained suspended for nearly two years.
“But after that, the decision was taken to revoke the order and allow the family members and friends to meet the inmates. It was first decided to resume the permission from December 1, but after the reports of new variant spreading, the decision has now been taken to hold the order for some more time,” said Jail Superintendent I. J. Myageri. He said that they received orders not to allow the physical meeting till further orders.
“We have been told that the government is analysing the situation after which a new decision will be taken on allowing the relatives to meet the inmates, personally. We will start allowing the relatives to meet as and when we get the orders,” he said.
He said, meanwhile, as per the order of the Apex Court, the inmates are allowed to either have voice or video call once a week with their respective family members.
“The inmates may not be able to meet their relatives or friends personally, however they can see them and interact with them virtually, “ Myageri said.
Answering to a question, he said that at present the jail has around 460 inmates. He said that though a few inmates had contracted Covid in the past, all of them recovered.
