To let: Telangana prisons for other states
HYDERABAD: States with overcrowded prisons can contact India’s youngest statethat plans to rent out cells in its jails at ₹10,000 for each prison era month.
Undertrials and hardcore criminals need not apply. The rent-a-jail scheme will be for convicts of“non-grievous and nonserious” of fences.
“Norway, where the crime rate has gone down considerably, started this practice of letting out its prisons toneighb our ing countries facing shortage of space for prisoners. We want to adopt this ,” director general of prisons VK Singh said on Thursday.
Telangana’s 50 jails can accommodate 6,848 prisoners but there are 6,063, at present. That means around 800 more can be lodged. States saddled with prison overcrowding such as Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh could be potential clients for Tel ana ga na, which was carved out of Andhra Pradesh in June 2014.
“We are planning to charge ₹10,000 a prisoner a month for prison space, food, security, mulakat (meeting visitors) and training in various job skills,” Singh said.
The prisons department will earn roughly ₹25 crore a year if the government clears the plan.
“The money would contribute to making our jails self-reliant,” the jail chief said.
In Te lang ana and And hr a Pradesh jails, the average daily expenditure on prisoners is ₹120, which comes to ₹43,800 a year. On food alone, thestatesspend Rs 80 a day on each prisoner every weekday and ₹100 on Sundays and holidays, when a non-vegetarian fare is served.
Singh said the scheme could begin next year after making space for at least 2,000 prisoners from other states. “We are not in a hurry. First, we want to stabilise our prisoner strength.”
He said a number of reformoriented programmes brought down the number of jailbirds or repeat-offenders in three years.
We are planning to charge ₹10,000 a prisoner a month for prison space, food, security, meeting visitors and training in job skills. VK SINGH , director general, prisons