Jail department plans mall, scheme to educate convicts
The DG said the department would build a shopping mall named ‘My Nation’ at Chanchalguda
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2014-08-28 00:22 GMT
Hyderabad:Jail authorities are planning new schemes to educate prisoners and to increase the revenue of the department. The authorities are going to convert abandoned jails in Telangana into museums.
Prisons director general V.K. Singh on Wednesday said the department will build a shopping mall at Chanchalguda using prisoners, and would also launch an education scheme named Vidyadhanam to make all prisoners literate.
“In 2013, over 99,000 prisoners were admitted to the jails in Telangana. Ninety per cent of them are illiterate. Vidyadhanam will make all prisoners literate,” said Mr Singh.
The DG said the department would build a shopping mall named ‘My Nation’ at Chanchalguda, and would deploy prisoners as employees. “The government has granted Rs 1.50 crore for this project. This mall will be the best in the old city area,” said Mr Singh.
The DG said that abandoned prisons will be converted into museums to promote local culture and art. “In the first phase, Sangareddy jail will be turned into a museum. It will promote history, art, and language,” Mr Singh said.
He added that teams from the Telangana jails department were sent to other states to study their prisons. “Our teams visited jails in Delhi, Maharashtra, Kerala, Gujarat, Bihar, and Rajasthan to study their practices. We got many ideas from the Tihar jail in Delhi and other jails. We are planning to implement them,” the director general said. He added that the food produced by prisoners will be sold in all police and military canteens.