HYDERABAD: The Telangana Prisons Department has emerged as a role model for other States by effectively utilising the services of over 2,000 skilled and unskilled prisoners. According to the prison statistics for 2019, released by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Telangana Prisons Department alone produced 73.25 per cent of total goods made by prisoners across the country - worth Rs 599.89 crore. The department has now set a target to break its own record.
The department has set a target of producing goods worth over Rs 800 crore in the current fiscal year.
The department’s ingenuity was on display recently. After the outbreak of Covid-19, the department produced 8 lakh face masks and 1 lakh litres of hand sanitiser, and earned revenues of around Rs 5 crore. The Prisons Department has manufacturing units in almost all district jails and Central jails producing steel furniture, notebooks, bedsheets, towels, soaps and detergents, bakery products, chemical substances, hand sanitisers, and face masks.
Speaking to Express, a senior officer said that the Director General of Prisons and Correctional Services Rajiv Trivedi had plans to connect the Prisons Department with leading online e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Flipkart, to make the products made by prisoners available to a wider audience.
The department is also planning to open five more petrol bunks in less than a month. At present, there are 20 petrol bunks being operated by the department. At the time of formation of Telangana, there were only three petrol bunks under the three Central jails. Increasing this number has come in handy for the department, as they brought in around `16 crore profit in the previous financial year.