Chandigarh, April 26 -- Chief secretary KAP Sinha has told Punjab and Haryana high court that immediate steps would be taken to deploy officials from other departments on a short-term basis to deal with the staff shortage in the state jails.

Sinha also told the court that the government would expedite and initiate the process of recruitment of permanent staff for the jails department.

Statement from the chief secretary came after ADGP (prisons), Arun Pal Singh apprised the court of the shortage of over 1,826 jail officials in the prisons department during a hearing of a plea on April 24.

Sinha appeared through video conferencing, following a court order, during the resumed hearing of the suo motu plea initiated in 2023 in connection wi...