In order to ensure the security of the jails and also to check the number of visitors visiting the jails in Punjab, Sarwan Singh Phillaur, Jail Minister Punjab has directed the officers of the department to expedite the process of introducing the smart card system in all the jails at the earliest. Identity cards would also be issued to the visitors in order to keep a check on the number of visitors.
Addressing a high level meeting of the officers of the department here today, Phillaur said that the safety of the Jail staff would be among the top priorities of the government. The jail department would install CCTV cameras, mobile jammers and other security equipment to ensure proper security in the upcoming jails.
He also said that modalities are being worked out to ban two-storied construction up to 100 feet from the outer walls of these new jails. With a view to generating a cordial atmosphere between the prisoners and the jail administration, the Minister said that the department would re-introduce the Nambardar system in all the jails of the state.
Referring to the quality of food being served in the jails, the Minister saidJail department would review the diet norms system in consultation with the dieticians of reputed institutions. A committee comprising IG (Jails), representatives of Central jails and Sub-jails besides a dietician from PGI Chandigarh has also been constituted which would submit its report shortly recommending appropriate healthy food for jail inmates.
He also asked the Superintendents of jails to work out the modalities to run two kitchens in each central jail with the computerized new system. He further asked the Jaildepartment to introduce Credit Card System for inmates in all the 8 central jailsto buy items from the jail canteens.
The Minster also said that entire record of prisoner maintained in Punjab jails would be computerized on the patterns of Tihar Jail. Necessary steps are being taken up in this regard. The computerized records would contain finger print of all RFID tag, Date of release, Remissions, Parole, Good Conduct, etc, said Phillaur.
A crush of Peroni bottles rolls down the gangway in time to mark Paris looming into view, the Oise limestone buildings dappled by the early evening sunshine, cast solid against the clear blue sky. A chorus of “mais oui”s greet the Eiffel Tower, but disaster strikes, and we hit the tail-end of the Paris rush hour. By the time we arrive at agnès b., a glacially white boutique nestled under the auspices of the soaring edifice of the Church Of St Eustace, it's well past stage time, and there’s a distinct frostiness emanating from the staff and assembled crowd lining the room, as each member of the party bundles in laden with guitar or cymbal. Once on, though, there’s nary a sign that there’d been any concern. Temples’ is a dab-handed performance, made all the more impressive when you consider that the band are less than a year old. They open with new song ‘Solid Structures’, where 60s snare patterns underpin a miasma of backwards guitar and sitar tones, before they jump a decade for another solid structure, the glam pop of 'Keep In The Dark'. They close with their now-familiar calling card ‘Shelter Song’, wonderful in the echoey, fiddly glory of that 12-string guitar line.
Charlie Boyer and his Voyeurs are up next. The sound mix is a little strange, the vocals perhaps damped by the chicness of the €90 t-shirts lining the walls, but unperturbed, Boyer’s trademark strangulated howl peaks through. Another effect of the sound is to play up some previously hidden shoegaze elements: the sheer force of the five-piece takes on a stomach-drubbing quality, powered on by Samir Eskanda’s occasional MBV-esque snare raps.
It’s an unintentionally early start the next day. 5.30am comes around and there’s some fumbling at my door, before it opens, revealing the silhouette of the hotel manager, with Alejandra and friend behind. Returning from some nocturnal gambolling around the boulevards, Alejandra and co didn’t know which room they were in, meaning the owner had to take them round every room Heavenly had booked. Needless to say, he wasn’t best pleased. "He said 'Toy?' 16 people have already said they're with Toy," reports Alejandra.
TOY’s Tom Dougall and Charlie Boyer, meanwhile, had accidentally stumbled upon a carnal cab, which not only drove them miles away from the hotel, but played them a sex tape while doing so. "At first I thought it was his mate doing a joke,” ponders Boyer, “but then he wasn't laughing, and she wasn't laughing..."
Following TOY, most of the bands have to depart to get to tonight’s venue, La Maroquinerie. Waiting for the coach to pick them up, Charlie Salvidge hops a fence and jumps into a be-tuliped flower bed, assuming the pose of a classical idol, shortly joined by Panda and Charlie Boyer, who visualise what Notre Dame’s gargoyles might look like had members of Can and Television been Jean de Chelles’ muses, all the time filmed by intrepid cameraman Samir Eskanda (thereby making good on his earlier directorial insistence “we need someone to do something!")
Back at agnès b., Stealing Sheep’s Scouse chatter following the exquisite pop of ‘Genevieve’ is conspicuous in the French crowd. Introducing their new song, ‘A Real Clown’, drummer Lucy Mercer declares: "This record's special for Record Store Day. Special: ooo! We're a bit nervous... secretly". If it’s true, it doesn’t show, and they follow with the primal drums and windswept moor top flutes of ‘Gold’, the intricacy of which is now tour-honed and immaculate.
The set done, and the 'Sheep bundled into a people carrier, we make our way up to La Maroquinerie (on the aptly-named Rue Boyer). Formerly a leather factory, it has a contrary kind of brilliance: it’s simultaneously an open-air courtyard restaurant, sun-dappled (today, anyway) and street-secluded, so much so that it could feasibly be located somewhere much further south (a feeling ably aided by a courtyard live band dealing out some smooth Mediterranean yacht-rock) while downstairs there’s a 500-capacity music venue, the kind that could (and sadly would) be a piss-soaked affair elsewhere, but here feels strangely spacious. And, crucially, it has excellent sound. This is made abundantly clear when the strains of ‘My Heart Skips A Beat’ rise up from the catacombs as we arrive. Soundcheck finished, Alejandra, Tom, Panda and Dominic are out in the courtyard, voicing their regret at missing the opening times for the Pere Lachaise cemetery, just up the road and famous for housing the remains of Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison and countless other bon vivants. "I want to do an ouija board in the cemetery,” says Alejandra. Have you ever had any contact from beyond? “I've never had anything happen with them before,” she answers, “nothing that couldn't be attributable. Like, someone farting.”
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