Jails to recruit 4,662 new staff

CM Buzdar announces ambulances, new barracks for inmates

LAHORE:

Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar has given approval in principle to recruitment of 4,662 watch and ward officials of the prisons department.

Chairing a meeting to review the pace of jail reforms on Thursday, he announced provision of 22 ambulances for transporting ailing prisoners from jail hospital to other infirmaries, adding that 21 more ambulances would be given next year.

The chief minister also announced that a Punjab Prison Staff Training College would be set up in Sahiwal and additional barracks would be built in 10 jails of the province.

He issued directives for establishing more public call offices (PCOs) to help prisoners to contact their families.

Juvenile and impecunious prisoners will be provided the facility free of charge. It was also announced that a non-government organisation would provide loans to officials of the prisons department for building houses.

While ordering acceleration of the work for the solarisation of jails, the chief minister emphasised the need for ensuring the availability of standard items at the canteens at the official rates. He warned that the jail superintendents would face action over complaints of overcharging or substandard food items.

The chief minister said lawyer facilitation centres would be set up in 42 jails. He said all the televisions, geysers, water coolers and fans should be functionalised and recruitment of doctors and paramedics completed without delay.

Prisons Minister Fayyazul Hasan Chohan said prisoners engaged in sewing tracksuits and footballs were being paid for the task.

The assistant chief secretary for home affairs, inspector general of prisons and other officials attended the meeting.

School data centre

Chief Minister Usman Buzdar inaugurated the data centre of the provincial school education department at the Programme Monitoring and Implementation Unit (PMIU) office.

On the occasion, he distributed shields among the best performing officials and congratulated Education Minister Murad Raas and his team over the start of "a new era of digital transformation".

The chief minister said reformation of the health and education sectors was a priority of the ruling PTI and attention was being paid to improving the organisational system, governance and access to data.  Verified and updated data is a vital component of policy formulation, he added.

There was a need to integrate the diverse data of schools, teachers and students into a single platform for better decision making, he said.

He added that 140 terabytes could be stored in the modern data centre.

The chief minister said a 60 per cent decrease was expected in the annual expenses of the existing information technology infrastructure because of the he she of the data centre.

The facility would also be helpful to run the Taleem Ghar and Insaf Academy online education projects in an effective manner. This would also ensure province-wide data management. Earlier, the education minister briefed the chief minister about salient features of the data centre.

Chief Minister Buzdar also chaired a meeting in which a detailed briefing was given about steps for the promotion of tourism. He called for development of tourist spots in collaboration with the private sector.

Tourist attractions of remote areas would also be developed to promote local tourism. The chief minister issued directives to restore a decommissioned ship present at Kot Mithan for the sightseers.

He said the development budget of the tourism department had been increased from Rs730 million to Rs2 billion.

Tourist spots will also be established at Head Taunsa and Kalabagh along with the promotion of desert sports in Thal, Bhakar and Fort Abbas, the chief minister concluded. 

Published in The Express Tribune, March 4^th, 2022.