Expressing concern over a cell phone tower located very close to the Central Prison, Lieutenant Governor Virendra Kataria said steps should be taken to either relocate the tower or stop its use as it was interfering with jammers installed in the prison.
According to Mr. Kataria, there were three cell phone signal jammers installed in the prison.
But, as the tower installed by a private company was in close proximity to the prison with stronger signals than the capacity of the jammers, prisoners were able to make phone calls from inside the jail. The administration should check if the tower had proper permission to operate from such a sensitive area, he told the press after inspecting the Kalapet Central Prison on Saturday.
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Expanding on the point, Deputy Inspector-General of Police I.D. Shukla said signal strength from towers was much higher than the capacity of the jammers. Police had earlier taken up the case with the service providers, but no step was taken to reduce the strength. Now, the Chief Superintendent of Jails had written to the District Collector seeking his intervention.
In the past 10 days, police had intensified measures and there had been no case of calls going out of the prison, Mr. Kataria said.