The union home ministry has pulled up jail authorities across the country for the living conditions in prisons and for the first time sent them an advisory in this regard seeking a compliance report from them.

The ministry has issued an advisory to all the 1400 jails across the country including Tihar Prisons and has asked them to send a compliance report on the prison conditions and the prisoners, MHA sources said.

Despite the fact that prisons in the country directly come under the jurisdiction of the respective state governments, the ministry initiated this move to monitor overcrowding and unhealthy practices at the jails.

At present over three lakh prisoners are lodged in different prisons across the country which is over and above their normal capacity.

Ministry sources said all prisons are overcrowded and this is to the tune of over one lakh.

Certain check points have been listed in the advisory sent to the prisons and authorities have been asked to answer them. If the answers are not satisfactory it will clearly reflect that prison rules and regulations have not been followed, sources said.

Citing an example they said that all jails have been asked to report details of undertrials lodged with them and action being undertaken to speed up cases of undertrials. This is being done as undertrials constitute the major share of the prison population and are a cause of overcrowding inside the jails, they said.