B'baria district jail yet to be shifted to new building

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BRAHMANBARIA, Oct 11 (UNB): The district jail could not be shifted to the newly constructed building, due to shortage of manpower.
Prisoners are living in a subhuman condition in the old jail as three or four times more prisoners are living in it than its usual accommodation capacity.
At present, there are 1,100 prisoners in the old district jail against the capacity of 283 prisoners.
The new building has been constructed a month back at a cost of Tk 216.7 million (Tk 21.67 crore) with an accommodation capacity of 650 prisoners. But the authority could not move to the new building due to shortage of manpower, sources said.
Construction work of the new building started on 17 acres of land at Urshiura village, on the outskirts of the district town, during the fiscal 1997-98.
The Public Works Department was expected to complete the construction work by five years. But it took 11 years to complete the work.
The home ministry informed the Public Works Department that the new jail would be inaugurated on August 15. As per its instruction, the department completed its work before August 15 but the jail is yet to be shifted.
Sources said there are some 34 staff members in the old jail but it needs 200 in the new building.