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Telangana Will Rent Out Space In Its Prisons To States With Overcrowded Jails For ₹10,000 A Month

But the state is being picky about the criminals it will accept.
A policeman peers from inside the gate of Chanchalguda jail in Hyderabad.
Krishnendu Halder / Reuters
A policeman peers from inside the gate of Chanchalguda jail in Hyderabad.

Last year, the Supreme Court emphasised the "tragic" and "pathetic" conditions of prisons in Delhi and half a dozen other states in the country, and said that they are overcrowded by over 150 per cent.

Now, Telangana has come to the rescue. According to a report in Hindustan Times, Telangana plans to rent out its jail cells to states with too many prisoners. The state will charge Rs 10,000 a month for each prisoner.

The jail authorities want to use this money to make their jails self-reliant.

But the rent proposal comes with certain conditions; the state has decided that it will only accept convicts who are in jail for 'non-serious' offences, not hard core criminals.

Director general of prisons, VK Singh, told HTthat this move has been inspired by Norway. In 2015, the country made global headlines when it leased space in a Dutch jail for its prisoners because its own jails were too full.

In a judgment on a suo motu Public Interest Litigation (PIL), the SC had observed that prisons are crammed with inmates by over one and a half times the permissible limit. "Fundamental rights and human rights of people, however they may be placed, cannot be ignored only because of their adverse circumstances," the court said.

India's youngest state is trying to finally solve the overcrowding problem.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.