HYDERABAD, Nov 19: Screening of prisoners of the Central Jail and Nara Jail will be conducted to trace carriers of hepatitis among them.

The decision in this connection was taken at a meeting held in the office of Justice Ameer Hani Muslim of the Sindh High Court, Hyderabad circuit bench.

Sindh additional advocate-general Masood A. Noorani, EDO (health) Dr Mehfooz Qureshi, the medical superintendent of the Hyderabad civil hospital Dr Khalid Qureshi, Central Jail superintendent Muzaffar Alam Siddiqui and Nara Jail superintendent were present on the occasion.

Justice Muslim visited the jails and collected countless applications of prisoners, complaining about their non-production and delay in trial of their cases.

The judge was informed that earlier screening was done for convicted prisoners but Justice Muslim called for screening of all prisoners including under-trial prisoners of both jails.

The sanctioned strength of the central jail is 1,527 while the current population of the central jail is 2,746.

It also includes 1,743 UTPs, 848 convicts, 62 foreigners and 22 detainees.

At present, 440 UTPs and 15 convicts are languishing in the Nara prison.

The prisoners told the judge about non-availability of drugs and their proper examination by doctors.

Civil Hospital MS Dr Khalid Qureshi said that a prisoner’s ward would be set up in the hospital for which a place had been identified behind casualty ward.

It may mentioned that the central jail’s 94-bed hospital receives medicines from the health department and until some time back medicine’s budget stood at Rs80,000 of which medicines were sent to the hospital for Rs20,000 for each quarter.Subsequently, the amount was increased to around Rs200,000.

The hospital has only two doctors which are insufficient to cater to a large number of prisoners.

Availability of medicines for deranged, hepatitis, TB, diabetic, cardiac patients and hypertension remained big problem for which the jail administration has to arrange donations.