Bhubaneswar, Oct. 15: Inmates of jails in Orissa have a piece of “wholesome” news in store for them.

Concerned over the quality of food the 15,000-odd inmates of the state’s 70 jails are getting, the home department is planning to introduce a more “balanced diet” for the prisoners, including tea with breakfast.

Speaking to The Telegraph, home secretary T.K. Mishra said the present food regime does not take care of the basic requirements of the inmates. “So we have thought of overhauling the diet to increase the nutrition level,” he said.

Dara Singh, lodged in the Baripada jail for the murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons, led a protest against the poor quality of food last year.

The present 3,500-calorie diet for prisoners has a high carbohydrate content. Taking note of this, the government now wants to serve lunch with more protein and less carbohydrate.

Currently, every prisoner is entitled to 305 gm of vegetables and 115 gm of dal during lunch. The inmate is also given mutton or two eggs once a week.

If the new food regime is put in place, the prisoners will get mutton or chicken once a week. For dinner, the authorities will serve meals more wholesome than the standard chira (flattened rice) and gur (jaggery).

The current breakfast comprises black gram and gur. Mishra said the government is planning to serve tea with a breakfast of suji halwa.

The per capita daily dietary expenditure is expected to go up from the present Rs 19-20 per day to Rs 30-32 after the introduction of the revised diet list. At present, the sanctioned expenditure is Rs 19 per day for an undertrial and Rs 20 for a convict.

There may be good news for the prisoners on the food front, but overcrowding in the jails continues to be a problem for them. Against a capacity of 9,125 inmates, the state’s 70 circle, special and sub-jails have 15,136 prisoners. The inmates regularly complain of unhygienic conditions and poor sanitation in the prisons.

The National Human Rights Commission recently asked the government to follow the food standards of Tihar jail.