TL-PRISONS-PROFIT

The Telangana Prisons department

has clocked a turnover of more than Rs 495 crore in 2018

through industries and petrol stations run by it, a top

official said Thursday.

The department, which is marching towards

self-sufficiency, achieved Rs 495.85 crore turnover and earned

a net profit of Rs 16.72 crore last year.

It is eyeing Rs 30 crore net profit in the current year

(2019), Director General of Prisons and Correctional Services,

Vinoy Kumar Singh told reporters here.

"Our target is to earn Rs 100 crore profits in 2020

which will make the department self-sufficient.

We are marching fast on path to self-sufficiency and

setting ambitious target to achieve it by 2020 itself," he

said.

The Telangana Prisons Department operates 17 petrol

pumps in Hyderabad and different districts wherein inmates and

released prisoners besides former jail authorities man such

bunks.

The department also established 'My Nation Outlets' and

'Ayurvedic villages,' where prisoners are provided employment.

Expressing surprise over the decline in number of

prisoner deaths last year, Singh said the number of deaths

dropped to eight in 2018 as against 17 in 2017 and 56 reported

in 2014.

Listing the facilities provided to prisoners, the

official said, "The Telangana Prisons has become a pioneer in

providing medical facilities to the prisoners including Master

Health checkup, nutritious food, physical exercises.

"We have provided ambulances to all the prisons," he

said.

On the department's target for 2019, Singh said, "We have

set a target for improving the industries and taking care of

the jail department staff.

We will prepare proforma for collecting information on

education and health of each and every jail staff and their

family members."

Claiming that the Telangana Prisons department had almost

become corruption-free, he said only one allegation of proved

corruption against a jail official came to light and the

complainant was paid cash reward Rs 10,000 as declared in its

policy.

According to Singh, 76,443 people were lodged in jails

across the state as of 2018 and out of it around 12,000 were

serving sentences in connection with drunken driving cases.

To a query, he said sexual offenders, rape accused and

convicts are lodged in separate barracks in the jails and are

also being provided with special counselling in order to

reform them.

On the 'Anand Ashrams' (special homes) set up for

rehabilitation of beggars in the city, Singh said, "So far

7,319 male beggars and 4475 female beggars visited the Ashrams

of which 7079 male beggars and 4440 female beggars were

released on their personal undertaking not to resort to

begging again."

Referring to the 'Vidhya Dan' programme of the

department, he said, "As many as 1,32,705 unlettered prisoners

have been made literates."

Soon after assuming charge in July 2014, Singh launched

the programme, aimed at making the inmates at least sign

instead of giving their thumb impression as was done prior to

admission into jail.

Advising other departments to follow the administrative

model of the Telangana Prisons department, he said, "This

model can be adopted by other departments in Telangana to make

Telangana state a 'Bangaru State' (Golden State)." PTI VVK

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(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)