“To completely stomp out the inflow of drugs from the jails of the state, the Punjab Government has decided to deploy high breed trained sniffer dogs. Under the pilot project, 8 high breed sniffer dogs have been inducted into the police force and despatched to Punjab Police Academy, Phillaur for special training.” It was stated by Sohan Singh Thandal, Jail Minister, Punjab.He said that among the high breed sniffer dogs procured by the state government, 6 belong to Lebra breed and 2 were of German shepherd breed. He said that the use of sniffer dogs had been prevalent world-over at highly sensitive places to detect explosive material and drugs. Similarly, the state government has decided to deploy sniffer dogs at jails. He further said that after training, these sniffer dogs would be deployed at Ludhiana, Amritsar, Bathinda, Patiala, Nabha, Gurdaspur, Ferozepur and Jalandhar Central Jails of Punjab.
Mr. Thandal said that after the success of this pilot project, sniffer dogs would be deployed at all the jails in Punjab. He said that with the deployment of sniffer dogs at the jails, the Punjab had become the first state of the country, which had adopted this traditional and highly reliable method for search operations. He further said that these sniffer dogs would undergo special training of 32 weeks, which would be commenced from July 1, 2014. “For the up keep of these sniffer dogs, 16 police personnel and 4 care takers have also been deployed at Punjab Police Academy, Phillaur”, added Mr. Thandal.The Minister said that at the first instance, these sniffer dogs would mainly be deployed in the Central Jails whereas their services would also be availed for surprise search operation for drugs and mobiles, in other smaller jails of the state.