Palghar locals give land for central prison on promise of employment

The upcoming central prison in Umroli village of Palghar will give villagers opportunities for income generation and a hope for early resolution of issues affecting their lives These facts when presented to the gram sabha helped authorities convince the villagers to allow its constructionThe rectangular facility which can accommodate over 2000 inmates will be built on a 25acre land in Umroli village of Palghar taluka Sources in the prison department told midday that the marking on the land has been done and the foundation stone will be laid soon A senior prison official told midday that it would also have an anda cell eggshaped cell where hardened criminals can be confinedAt the Collectorrsquos officeHow villagers were convincedldquoOnce the central prison is operational villagers will be employed Their issues like the water crisis will also be addressed faster The tribals who are daily wage earners have to spend a lot of money on travel to Thane in case their family member is in jail They will save not just money but time too when jail comes closer These facts helped convince the gram sabha along with a video conference with Manukumar Srivastavardquo said a source in the Palghar collectorrsquos officeBoost to tribal artAnother senior prison official said Warli painting a form of tribal art will get a boost inside the prison and the artworks will be sold in the market The inmates will be taught other skills like carpentry bakery and tailoring at the prisonA video conference at the collectorrsquos officeldquoUmroli village is located between industrial suburbs Palghar and Boisar and growing fast The jail will generate income opportunities for the locals and help in the villagersquos developmentrdquo Deputy Sarpanch of Umroli Gram Panchayat Jeetendra Gharat told middayldquoThe unemployed youth and women can supply milk vegetables rice etc to the prison Women can also supply homecooked food to the prison staff Besides villagers can also start food stalls for people visiting the inmatesrdquo Gharat said adding ldquoOnce the central jail is ready we hope our water issue will also be resolvedrdquoWhy it was neededCurrently all the offenders from Palghar are sent to Thane Centre Jail The proposed facility will not only save the government expenditure in transporting prisoners from jail to court for hearings but also give a huge relief to the inmatesrsquo relatives and counsels who have to travel from the remotest tribal hamlets of Palghar district to Thane for jail visitsMap of the Palghar Central prisonThe proposal for the prison was made eight years ago when Palghar district was carved out of Thane district However it was expedited only after the tragic lynching of sadhus in Palghar in 2020 Hundreds of accused were arrested and sent to Thane Central Jail While the prison has a capacity of only 1108 inmates it currently has 4700 inmatesSeeing the fourfold rise in the number of inmates Thane Central Jailrsquos superintendent Harshad Aherao started working on effective strategies to address the issue of overcrowding He met with senior prison officials and decisionmakers at Mantralaya in 2020 The then state home secretary Manukumar Srivastava was convinced by Aheraorsquos proposal following which he started looking for a landldquoThe upcoming highsecurity prison will reduce the overcrowding in Thane Central Jail by almost 30 per cent as all the offenders of Palghar district will be shifted thererdquo a senior prison official told midday requesting anonymityldquoBecause of the urbanisation in Palghar the crime graph is rising in the district After I resumed office in Palghar I received a letter from the home secretary to find land for a jail Thereafter prison officials also met me for the same as finding a land was a difficult task as it needed approval from the gram sabha and the villagers were not readyrdquo Palghar District Collector Dr Manikrao Gursal saidWe started the work immediately owing to the urgency and found a sufficient patch of land in Umroli village The gram sabha was initially reluctant to give us the land but they finally agreed We finally got a 25acre land for the jail without spending a single rupee After acquiring the land we handed it over to the prison department for further development workrdquo Dr Gursal addedldquoThe upcoming prison in Palghar will be centrally located in the district as all the important government establishments including police headquarters court hospital railway station collector office will be within the radius of 1 kmrdquo said a senior prison official ldquoMoreover Boisar industrial road Ahmedabad Pune Bullet train project and proposed RTO office will also be within a 2km radiusrdquo2000No of inmates it would accommodate25 AcreSize of plot for Palghar Central Jail