Absence of Court, jail at Jiri belies district status
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, December 18 2018:
Although it has been two years since Jiribam was granted district status together with six others, lack of essential infrastructure has been belying the separate district status.
Law and order maintenance work has been severely plagued by the absence of a separate Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate and a proper jail.
After Jiribam was declared as a separate district, one Deputy Commissioner and one Superintendent of Police were appointed.
As in other districts, the SP is in charge of maintaining law and order in Jiribam while the DC is in charge of civil administration.
There are laws and statutes which say that any person arrested by police should be presented before a Court within a specific period.
But in Jiribam, there is no Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate nor any proper jail.
In the absence of a CJM Court, police are compelled to take arrested criminals or suspects all the way to Imphal which is around 225 Kms.
Moreover, taking criminals or suspects on the long and hilly Imphal- Jiribam highway is also not advisable from security point of view, said some prominent public leaders of Jiribam.
If the criminals or suspects must be taken to Imphal with fool-proof security arrangement, there must be adequate strength of police personnel as well as vehicles.
Jiribam has already been accepted as the western gate of Manipur for just beyond it lies Assam.
As such, there are strong possibilities of illegal migrants or intruders crossing into Manipur through Jiribam.
There have been many instances of arresting illegal immigrants or non-local people without proper verification documents at Jiribam, said the public leaders.
As criminal or anti-social acts can occur any time, there is an urgent need to open a CJM Court and also a proper jail at Jiribam, they asserted.
The Jiribam Jail located at Kalinagar was established on November 9, 1964 but it has long ceased to be a jail.
Even though the jail has dilapidated, the main structures are still intact.
The Government need to retrofit the jail and reconstruct those portions which cannot be retrofitted so as to make the jail functional, they added.
Many observers have pointed out that there is a growing need to open a jail at Moreh too so that police are not required to bring criminals and illegal immigrants to Imphal.