CIC directs Tihar to divulge details on basic facilities like diet chart, medical services given to inmates

NEW DELHI: Tihar Jail must voluntarily disclose the diet chart, standard of food, basic medical services and grievance redressal systems available for inmates and children lodged inside the prison complex, the Central Information Commission has ruled.

Hearing a complaint filed by Sehjad, an inmate who has been undergoing several jail terms since 2004, the transparency watchdog pointed out “malfunctioning of diet supply mechanisms” in Tihar Jail, Asia’s largest prison. Sehjad had filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking details of the quantity of milk given to inmates, problem of dilution of milk and redressal of grievances.

He had indirectly made serious allegations against the jail authorities that they were promoting wet canteens, forcing the prisoners to purchase through smart cards, while diluting quality of food generally supplied free of cost.

Taking a serious note of the allegations, Information Commissioner M Sridhar Acharyulu asked the jail administration to provide a detailed response to the prisoner who had approached CIC as he had received incomplete response.

In his eight-page order, Acharyulu said the prison administration should divulge these details regularly and voluntarily on its website. The prison administration has been given a month to place on its official website and on the notice boards in different jails “the diet chart, standards of food for inmates suffering simple and rigorous imprisonment and children, besides medical services, redressal grievances available at respective prisons”.

The information commissioner also directed the prison administration to treat the application as a complaint and furnish to the commission action taken report on all the issues pointed out by Sehjad. “The prisoner’s questions reflect the malfunctioning of diet supply mechanism in the prison,” Acharyulu said.