CHANDIGARH: The Chief Minister Punjab  Parkash Singh Badal today calls for the comprehensive re-caste of the state policy on jails and jail inmates. He said that jails should be treated not as punitive centers but as schools for reform.

The Chief Minister was presiding over a special meeting to review the present conditions of jails in the state. Under focus especially were the jails at Nabha and Kapurthala.

Striking a personal note Badal said, "I have a special romance with jails. I doubt if any one in the country know jails more intimately than I have been privileged to know. Perhaps, I am the only person to have constructed a jail and become the first prisoner their".

He called for modernization and up gradation of the entire jail network in the state and said that special steps need to be taken to decongest the present jails as the jails were over crowded today.

Prominent amongst who were present in the meeting included Mr. Hira Singh Gabria Jails Minister Punjab, H.S. Bains Media Advisor/CM, R.I. Singh, Chief Secretary Punjab, Dr. B.C. Gupta Principal Secretary Home and Senior officers of the Home and the Jails department.