LUCKNOW - Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Friday inaugurated the new building of Lucknow Jail, located on the outskirts of the city, that has the capacity to house more than 3,500 prisoners and is equipped with high-class security.

The chief minister inaugurated the new jail from the confines of her heavily guarded official residence here.

Addressing the function, Mayawati sought to justify shifting of Lucknow prisons to the outskirts of the state capital, which had sparked off a major controversy followed by a court battle that she eventually won.

She had taken the fight right up to the Supreme Court, which allowed her to go ahead with the construction of a new jail and to also shift all the prisoners to the new complex, some 25 km away from the town.

Addressing a small gathering of ministers and bureaucrats besides a contingent of security personnel, Mayawati said, “The old jail was built way back in the 1860s, therefore the buildings were not safe.”

“Though the old buildings of Lucknow Jail were away from the city at the time of their construction, the expansion of Lucknow city brought the jail premises almost in the middle of the urban population, posing serious security hazards.”

She said the old jail was not big enough to accommodate the increased number of prisoners. “As against its capacity of 1,004 prisoners, as many as 2,680 prisoners were stuffed in it, in violation of norms laid down by the Human Rights Commission as well as the union government,” she pointed out, adding, “the new district jail would have the capacity to accommodate 3,640 inmates.”

Mayawati said the new jail had been equipped with high-class security and other arrangements. Besides, different facilities for the welfare and improvement of prisoners had been provided.

Spread across 81 hectares on the Mohanlalganj-Gosainganj highway, the new jail complex - with a women’s prison, a model jail and a district jail - was being completed at a cost of about Rs.327 crore.

According to an official spokesman, “the new jails would have a modern kitchen, 80-bed hospital, safe meeting place, sewerage treatment plant, multi-purpose hall, school buildings in each circle, canteen, visitors’ shade, bakery building, X-ray scanning, high security premises, CCTV, court room, video conferencing room, central watch towers, high mast light, police outpost, sensitive prisoner room, police barracks among other things.”