The video conferencing project Jailvaarta launched by the Prisons Cell of Himachal Pradesh Police has been awarded “The Manthan-South Asia and Asia Pacific Award 2014” as the best e-governance project.
The initiative of the Prisons Department involves a video conferencing between jail inmates and their families and friends outside.
The international award was given to the department earlier this month in a ceremony at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, by the Sri Lankan Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena, said S.R. Mardi, Additional Director-General of Police, Prisons, on Saturday.
This low-cost solution, with the help of just a computer and a microphone, has been developed by the National Informatics Centre at Shimla, he said.
Calls from abroadFamily members of the inmates can go on the website, www.hpprisons.nic.in, and interact with the inmates. Requests for video-conferencing are coming from places as far as the United Kingdom and Finland. Of the 1,100 requests made so far, 100 have come from these two countries.
Detailing the advantages, the ADGP said it saved time and cost for relatives and they escaped the stigma of visiting prisons. The chances of passing contraband and illegal stuff to the inmates were minimised and the under-trial prisoners could be questioned by the investigating officers from anywhere.
This prison department website is part of the Web Portal of Interoperable Criminal Justice System and has been developed for speedy justice by facilitating data exchange among courts, police, prosecution, jails and forensic labs, said the ADGP.
