Warangal: Prison makes way for hospital

Warangal: In a major development that necessitates setting up of a super-speciality hospital on the 59-acre belonging to Warangal Central Prison, the Jail authorities started shifting the prisoners to other jails. First batch of the prisoners – 75 men and 39 women - were shifted to Hyderabad. The move comes in the wake of the State Government's decision to establish a regional cardiac centre along with other disciplines on the jail land. As per the plan, the existing Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital (MGMH) will be turned into a Mother and Child Health (MH) centre. A decision in this regard was taken during the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's recent visit to Warangal.

The prison which was built in 1886 during the regime of sixth Nizam of Hyderabad Mir Mahboob Ali Khan is currently housing 957 criminals. With the jail sharing border with the Kakatiya Medical College (KMC) and the MGMH is just a few paces away from it, the government zeroed in on the land for bringing up a comprehensive healthcare facility. The KMC also houses a super-specialty hospital established under the Centre's Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) scheme.

In fact, the proposal to shift the prison to some other location to extend healthcare services of the MGMH on its land has been doing rounds for a long time. However, the move made headway with the CM who came to inspect Covid-19 treatment facilities in the MGMH recently deciding to take up the proposal.

Although there has been speculation over the shifting of jail to Dharmasagar or other nearby villages, finally, it appears that the government decided to relocate it to Mamnoor near TSSP 4th Battalion campus on the suburbs of Warangal city. The 120-acre premises to have a jail and open jail, a top official of the jail told The Hans India.

Against this backdrop, on Tuesday, the Director General of Prisons & Correctional Services Rajiv Trivedi visited the central jail and supervised the shifting of inmates. Trivedi said, "The transferring of inmates will be completed within a fortnight. The 267 employees of the prison will be absorbed in other jails as per their wish and availability. The construction of a new prison with modern facilities will be completed in two years."