Bangladesh News

The sufferings of inmates crammed into the Dhaka Central Jail is likely to continue as the construction of a new central jail in Keraniganj has delayed due to legal tangles.

The construction work began last year but it was put on hold for months due to legal complications. Officials said the jail is expected to be completed by 2015.

Construction work of the jail started with the filling up of low lands. But the High Court (HC), upon writ petitions by land owners seeking compensation, issued an injunction on land filling in March this year.

Sources involved in the project said the five-year “Construction of Keraniganj Central Jail Project” was approved in fiscal year 2005-2006 but could commence in September 2007 due to land-related complications.

The work stopped by the HC injunction resumed in April this year after the writ petitions were disposed of.

The project was initiated with an aim to move the Dhaka Central Jail and minimise sufferings of the prisoners having to stay in crammed cells.

“It may take us up to 2015 to finish the construction work,” said an official, adding that people who lost their land to the project have lodged writ petitions with the HC, delaying the implementation of the project.

The land owners alleged that they were only given market price for their land but no compensation for the loss of their properties.

In 2005, the then BNP government initiated the project. It took two years to get the project approved and 194 acres of land acquired at the cost of Tk 30 crore but the problem cropped up when filling of the low lands began.

A total of seven writ petitions were filed and in response to one of them the HC issued an injunction on filling of any part of the acquired land. All the writs were, however, disposed of by the court this year, paving the way for work to resume.

As per the project, there will be two units in the same compound of the central jail each having the capacity of 4,000 inmates. There will also be a smaller unit for accommodating 200 female prisoners.

“It will be a comprehensive jail and there will also be a 200-bed fully-fledged hospital,” said Project Director Mazibur Rahman, also the deputy secretary of the home ministry.

Asked about the delay in implementation of the project, he blamed filing of the writs by the land owners. “We would have completed land filling by this time had the writs not been filed,” he told The Daily Star last week.

He said when they began filling land in March this year, one of the land owners got a three-month injunction stopping the work. “So we had to settle the legal battle before resuming land filling.”

The government sanctioned Tk 8.16 crore for land filling in the last fiscal year but only Tk 2.5 crore was spent due to the legal complications holding up work. In fiscal year 2008-2009, the government approved Tk 40 crore for land filling.

The acquired land is about 10 to 12 feet under water and filling the land might take years to complete, sources concerned said, adding that construction work would go on along with the filling of land.

Initially, houses for prison guards and officials would be built.

“We have divided the whole areas into nine parts. Of which, only two parts could be filled by dredging from the nearby river,” said an official involved in the project. “We have planned to finish the land filling by June 2010.”

The official said the master plan for the project was about to be finalised. Option to double the capacity of the jail is expected to be in the master plan, he added. “It will be the largest jail in the country.”

As part of the plan to move the Dhaka Central Jail, the prisoners under trial will be sent to Keraniganj while convicts and women serving term to the prisons in Kashimpur and Gazipur. About 10,000 prisoners are kept there against the capacity of 2,700.

The moving will, however, take time and the prisoners would continue to suffer in the jam-packed jails across the country. Nearly 90,000 prisoners are now staying in the country’s 67 prisons which have accommodation for only 27,500.