Herbal medicine facility soon at Cherlapally jail
The Cherlapally prison has around 100 acres of farmland in which a nursery is already operational
Hyderabad: As part of reforms aimed at making prisons self-sustainable a herbal medicine production and processing facility will soon come up at the Cherlapally central prison in Hyderabad.
“We are working on the modalities and the facility will be operational soon. We are speaking to experts about this. This can help open-air prisoners to get some employment once they are out of jail. The earnings also will improve,” said Telangana Director General (Prisons), Mr Vinoy Kumar Singh.
The Cherlapally prison has around 100 acres of farmland in which a nursery is already operational. To increase profits the department has hired a retired director of horticulture to teach open-air prisoners scientific farming techniques.
“We are aiming at producing saplings which can be sold for Rs 200 to Rs 400. But as there is water scarcity here we are not going for water intensive crops,” Mr Singh added.
The prison department is also planning to plant teak on prison lands. “Around one lakh teak saplings will be planted on all prison lands across Telangana. We are expecting a return of at least Rs 1,500 crore after 20 years from the teak plantation,” Mr Singh said.