Hazaribagh, April 17: Doctors rushed to the Jaiprakash Narayan Central Jail today and advised immediate hospitalisation of three inmates even as the mass indefinite fast by prisoners entered the third day today.

Following reports that the state government had decided to release five of the life-convicts in the first lot, most of the 3,445 inmates decided to end their fast today.

But the life-convicts decided to continue till the release order actually arrived from the government.

According to the doctors who visited the jail, inmates refused to end their fast despite repeated pleas.

Having spent 20 years of their life in prison, they told the doctors, it no longer mattered whether they live or die. The doctors confirmed that the condition of the 38 life convicts had deteriorated.

The doctors warned jail officials that some of the inmates were in poor health and unless attempts are made to break the fast, some of them could even succumb.

The indefinite fast had been launched on Friday by the life convicts, many of whom have already been in prison for more than 20 years although life-convicts generally are released after 14 years, if prison authorities certify their ?good conduct? during this period.

The state government, however, had withdrawn the authority of respective prison superintendents to release life-convicts under intimation to the government.

But the state government did not put an alternative system in place, resulting in the drift.

The 38 life-convicts today demanded that all of them should be released together and refused to end their fast until their demand is conceded.

Pleas by officials that the state government had responded positively to their fast and that release orders for all of them would arrive gradually and in batches, failed to satisfy them.

Hazaribagh deputy commissioner Rahul Purwar also rushed to the jail today to take stock of the situation.

During his three-hour stay, the deputy commissioner is learnt to have quizzed jail officials closely about conditions in the jail and factors that prompted the inmates to launch the fast.

The jail superintendent, Nagendra Kumar, said the deputy commissioner inquired about water and food quality and other basic facilities in the jail.

He also spoke to the inmates and the staff and called for suggestions from them for improving conditions in the jail.

Kumar, however, was more tight-lipped today and refused to entertain too many questions.

Jail sources claimed that officials at the headquarters and the DC had both asked jail officials to keep the affairs under wraps.