Breads baked by Beur Central Jail inmates are being served on the tables of other prisons across the state.

Beur jail superintendent Shivendra Priyadarshi told The Telegraph on Friday: "The government made some changes in the diet chart of the inmates and included bread in their meals. Since September, the Beur jail bakery started getting orders from the administration of the other jails in the state. The bakery, in its full capacity, can manufacture around 10,000 loaves of bread daily. Now, after getting orders from the other jails, we are manufacturing anything between 2,000-2,200 loaves a day. Earlier, we only supplied breads to the district jail in Phulwarisharif and the Danapur sub-divisional jail."

Each loaf from the jail bakery can yield 16 slices of bread.

"At present, we are taking orders from 14 jails in the state, including Naugachhia sub-jail, Biharsharif district jail and Supaul district jail. The loaves generally weigh around 400g and are priced at Rs 22.5. The prison administrations make the payments through demand drafts," Priyadarshi said.

Production at the bakery started in February 2011. Apart from supplying bread to other jails, state home department officials also planned to brand the products. Bandini was finalised as the name. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the representatives of the prison department and Comfed (Bihar State Milk Co-Operative Federation Limited) in 2013 to sell the products in the open market but that plan has not made any progress.

Sources in the home department claim the work though is under way.

"The MoU signed between us and Comfed remains. The work has been slow but the breads would roll out in the market for the general public soon," a department official said.

At present, the Beur Central Jail houses 2,100 undertrials and convicts. The revenue collected from the sale is deposited in the prisoners' welfare fund and subsequently distributed among the beneficiaries.

A semi-skilled prisoner is paid Rs 87, while a skilled worker receives Rs 121 daily. An unskilled prisoner is paid Rs 40 for four hours of work.

As work proceeds at the bakery in full steam, the authorities have sent a proposal to the home department for setting up of a printing press at the jail.

"There is a printing press at the Bhagalpur Central Jail and it is working very well. The Beur jail can have one too and so, a proposal has been sent. If approved, the work on the project would be started immediately," Priyadarshi said.