June 14, 2002	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 2, 1423

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MANSEHRA, June 13: Due to the apathy of services and works department and the jail authorities, the inmates of sub-jail Mansehra are living in inhuman conditions as despite the lapse of 14 years the department has not completed the construction of the  district  jail  building.

The present sub-jail in the vicinity of the district courts was basically a judicial lock-up constructed in the 18th century, with the capacity of only 50 prisoners. After the upgradation of Mansehra from tehsil to a district, it was given the status of sub-jail in 1977.

At present, it remains congested and over-crowded  with 350 inmates every day, who are always vulnerable to all kinds of epidemics, specially scabies and other diseases. The lack of sanitation facilities and drinking water adds to the miseries of the inmates.

A clash broke out between two groups of the prisoners 7th on fetching water at the time of Friday prayers which resulted in injury to one prisoner. They are not provided  facilities according to the jail manual and even for going out of their over-crowded barracks they have to walk on the bodies of their fellow inmates.

On the other hand, the provincial government had acquired a 153-kanal piece of land for the construction of district jail Mansehra in Sajawal Sharif, two kilometres north-west of the town.

The construction work on the project started in 1989 by the construction and works (C&W) department which under the new system has been succeeded by the services and works (S&W) department.

Despite the passage a long time the work could not be completed yet. The S&W department had officially announced to hand over the new district jail to the authorities in June 2002 but now the S&W department has informed the jail authorities that they would get the building in June 2003.