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| What’s cooking? Birsa Munda Central Jail in Ranchi, which already introduced the tasty fare on Thursday |
Jail food has become almost festive across five central and 21 district and subdivisional jails of Jharkhand with the inclusion of once-a-week treats of kheer or non-vegetarian dishes since Thursday, almost 18 months after a PIL on prisoners’ diet was filed by a social worker.
Non-vegetarian prisoners will now get an option of mutton, chicken or fish once a week, while each vegetarian prisoner will get kheer made from half a litre of milk.
Earlier, non-vegetarian food was given once a week in four months between November and February, while vegetarians got kheer in that corresponding time. Now, the special items on the menu will be weekly staples throughout the year.
“Jail authorities have been ordered to put up the new menu on boards in all the wards to inform inmates. The prisoners have a right to know about better food that the government has decided to serve them. Any discrepancy can be reported directly to my office,” inspector general (prisons) S.S. Tiwari told The Telegraph.
“The menu has been prepared by dieticians and nutritionists who have calculated the amount of nutrients mandatory for good health. Jail authorities are making estimates of the budgeting and will place them before the state shortly,” he said when asked about the hike in costs.
In the capital, jailer V.P. Singh of the hi-profile Birsa Munda Central Jail that houses several tainted former cabinet ministers, confirmed the new change had been implemented in their facility since August 23.
This lip-smacking benevolence of the government comes nearly a year and a half after a public interest litigation filed before Jharkhand High Court in March last year seeking better food for the state’s prisoners.
The petition filed by social worker Ramashray Singh sought reforms in the menu for prisoners based on the jail manual. The PIL had informed the court that jail inmates were being deprived of their rights and that prisoners in neighbouring Bengal had the privilege of better food.
The court, while hearing the case on July 16, gave the state government four weeks to ensure that the diet provided to prisoners was according to the jail manual.
Social worker Singh said the government filed an affidavit before the court that it had implemented the yearlong non-vegetarian and kheer menu. The court will take up to case again to decide whether it is satisfied with the government’s action.
But Singh confessed he was a happy man.
“The decision of the government to start the new menu for inmates is a very welcome change. The government has realised its duties and rectified its faults, which is what I had sought for through the court,” he said.
Inspector general (prisons) Tiwari said meals would be heavier and there was more variety in breakfast. “The quantity of food items including rice, chapattis, vegetables and pulses has also considerably increased. Inmates will have no reasons to complain anymore,” Tiwari said. Prisoners will also get sattu, flattened rice and puffed rice besides chana-gur.
