Burail jail kitchen to use green gas from today

Naina Mishra

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 1

In line with the UT’s environment centric campaigns, the Burail jail is all set to adopt an environment-friendly alternative for preparing meals for anganwadi centres and for the jail itself from Wednesday.

Two biogas plants will become operational in the outskirts of the jail to save fuel expenditure up to 45 per cent. The project will be inaugurated tomorrow to mark the 151st birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

The Burail jail kitchen is currently supplying food to more than 100 angwanwadi centres and 45 creches. The inmates having good conduct are deployed in the kitchen.

The project was undertaken by the Chandigarh Renewal Energy and Science & Technology (CREST) nearly two years ago and two plants were set up for Rs 18 lakh. Two trolleys of cow dung and four to five quintals of household waste will be used daily as fuel for the biogas plants. The household waste will be collected from houses of jail authorities and jail kitchen.

Debendra Dalai, Director-cum-CEO, CREST, said: “With the help of biogas plants, there will be 35 to 45 per cent reduction in expenditure incurred on LPGs. If two more biogas plants are set up, Burail jail will completely shift to using green gas.”

Virat, Joint IG Prison, said: “Biogas has zero net greenhouse emissions and the organic matter used in biogas plants is typically a waste product. By using biogas, we will be able to reduce the amount of food waste and other organic materials being sent to landfill.”

Virat said the plastic plates used in the jail will be replaced by with degradable material.

Inmates to stage play

Prisoners will also be a part of the Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary celebration. Inmates will stage a play on shortage of water and renewable resources. “Separate room was given to a few participating inmates for practising. Initiatives like these help to enrich the artistic capability of inmates,” said Virat.

Seven convicts to be released today

Seven prisoners with good conduct, under the scheme for special remission to prisoners to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, will be released by the Burail jail authorities today. These prisoners have already completed two-third of their sentence. Their names were forwarded to the Ministry of Home Affairs and an approval was received thereon.

Prisoners eligible for special remission are women and transgender convicts, who are 55 years old or above, and men who are or more than 60 years of age will be eligible for remission. The convicts must have completed 50 per cent of their sentence.

The special remission is not granted those convicted for an offence for which the sentence is death penalty or where death sentence has been commuted to life imprisonment. The remission is also not given to convicts imprisoned for heinous crimes such as dowry, rape and human trafficking.