68 ... ... ... ... .. C I V I L L I B E RT I E S in identifying the infrastructural inadequacies and other deficiencies in the prison administration in the States concerned. 4.88 The Chief Coordinator, Custodial Justice Cell and the Special Representative, Orissa undertook a review of the jail infrastructure and connected facilities in that State. They submitted a comprehensive report to the Commission with a number of specific recommendations designed to improve the state of the buildings, sanitation and water supply, the staff position, medical facilities, the scale of diet, jail industries and housing facilities for the jail staff. The report is under consideration of the Commission. 6) Prison Reforms 4.89 The Commission has been advocating the replacement of the archaic Indian Prison Act of 1894 by a Model Prison Bill which would be uniformly applicable throughout the country. In the year 1996, the Commission had prepared and circulated an outline of a Model Prison Bill and urged all the States to have appropriate resolutions passed in their respective legislatures so that a new Act could be adopted by Parliament under Article 252 of the Constitution of India. While this process was underway, the Ministry of Home Affairs entrusted a related task to the Bureau of Police Research and Development. On 27 December 2002, the Commission thus received for its comments, from the Union Home Secretary, a Draft Model Prison Manual prepared by a Committee headed by the Director General, Bureau of Police and Research Development. After that Draft Prison Manual was examined by the Custodial Justice Cell, the Commission considered the matter and forwarded its comments to the Ministry of Home Affairs on 11 February 2003. 4.90 The Commission remains of the view that there is need, in the first instance, to enact a new Prison Act, as recommended by the Mulla Committee on Jail Reforms. That Act could provide the most appropriate and contemporary legal basis for a new Manual. The Commission therefore urges the Union Home Ministry to pursue this matter further. 7) Visits to other Correctional Institutions/Protection Homes 4.91 Shri S. V. M. Tripathi, Special Representative of the Commission, visited the State Observation Homes in Pauri and Uttarkashi on 20-21 April 2002. N AT I O N A L H U M A N R I G H T S C O M M I S S I O N