India, May 10 -- The state home department has decided to shift the two central prisons of Thane and Nagpur and the district jail of Wardha out of city limits. The decision to shift the 15-acre historic Wardha Prison within the city to a 100-acre plot in Injapur village, seven kilometres away, was taken last week.

Additional chief secretary (jails) Radhika Rastogi corroborated, "The jails are to be shifted. But we will move the inmates only after the government constructs the new jail premises. The method of financing the construction of the new jails is yet to be decided."

A senior officer of the jail department revealed that the government was very keen to shift the jails outside city limits in order to get jail land in prime areas fr...