Chandigarh, Aug. 19 -- The Punjab government on Monday informed the Punjab and Haryana high court that a video-conferencing facility has been made available in jails across Punjab. This comes around a month after the HC directed the government to use videoconferencing as far as possible, especially in the case of high-risk prisoners. The division bench of justice Anupinder Singh Grewal and justice Deepak Manchanda was also told that "various posts of jail staff have been filled while the process is on for filling up other posts". During the resumed hearing of a suo motu case on enhancing security in jails, Punjab chief secretary KAP Sinha appeared before the bench via videoconferencing. He told the court that significant progress had been made to augment the security in jails. The bench, on the previous date of hearing, had directed the trial courts to use this facility "as much as possible, especially in the case of high-risk prisoners, as it not only spares the police personnel, who are to be put on security duty, but saves sizeable public expenditure". The developments are significant as the bench was initially told that the state was facing a shortage of 1,826 jail officials. Punjab, on a subsequent date of hearing, had told the court that it had obtained in-principle approval for the recruitment of around 500 personnel. The bench has already been told that the state has initiated a sweeping overhaul of prison security infrastructure, which includes the installation of AI-based CCTV surveillance systems in jails and the deployment of e-bikes for internal mobility and surveillance enhancement. The matter is now scheduled to come up on August 28....