BHUBANESWAR: Prison inmates in the State may soon get snacks at night. The Directorate of Prisons has moved the State government seeking funds for night refreshments for prisoners by enhancing their dietary allowance.
While prisoners are now provided three meals a day, the jail manual also has provision of food during the night. The manual prescribes a diet containing 2,816 Kcal per prisoner and 3,100 Kcal for pregnant and nursing women inmates.
Every prisoner will now have some snack for night refreshment apart from three meals a day. Although it has not been decided what snack would be given to the prisoners, the Directorate has proposed a packet of biscuit.
The Directorate has proposed the Home department to enhance the cost of diet from Rs 64 per day to Rs 80 considering the price rise of food and essential commodities. The last time the diet cost was revised from Rs 60 to Rs 64 per day for both convicts and UTPs lodged in different jails, sub-jails and correctional institutions was in 2015.
Citing that the cost of LPG (14.2 kg cylinder) has gone up from Rs 646 to Rs 926, a jail official said it is difficult on the part of the superintendents to manage with the funds at their disposal. “It has been estimated that funds to the tune of Rs 64.24 crore per annum will be required for around 22,000 prisoners in the State if the enhanced diet cost is approved,” he said.
In order to accommodate the subsequent rise in price, the official said, there should be an in-built arrangement so that there is a commensurate rise in the budgetary provision for the diet and related expenses. The Directorate has also proposed to link the diet cost per prisoner per day to the price index with a provision of six monthly review at the government level for automatic change of the cost.