The government of Jammu and Kashmir has sought Rs 7 crore from the Centre to fund its plan to build a jail meant solely for terror convicts and under-trials in Srinagar. The decision to hold such convicts in a separate jail stemmed from intelligence reports that warned that those in Srinagar Central Jail for regular petty crimes faced the risk of being influenced or trained by extremist inmates, The Times of India reported.

The central government has repeatedly urged the prison administrations in the state to restrict the movement of high-risk prisoners within the jails, as well as their contact with other cellmates to prevent them from influencing others in any way. Taking its advice, Jammu and Kashmir has forwarded its Rs 7-crore proposal to the Home Affairs Ministry.

The Centre has already disbursed funds to modernise states’ police departments. While states are required to upgrade their prisons from their own coffers, a home ministry official said the Centre might make an exception for Jammu and Kashmir in this regard. Jammu and Kashmir runs has its own prison department that handles two central jails, 10 district jails and two sub-jails, which hold some 2,500 prisoners, most of whom are under-trials.