Prisoners put in Chhattisgarh’s central jails at Raipur, Durg, Jagdalpur, Bilaspur and Ambikapur have managed to produce goods worth Rs 2.89 cr during the financial year 2013-14, official sources informed.

The central jail inmates achieved the feat after they went through months of skill improvement training provided by Jail department in sectors such as offset and screen printing, textile industry, sewing, knitting, embroidery, nylon rope manufacturing, woodcraft, bamboo craft, iron and steel furniture manufacturing, sculpture, terracotta craft and manufacturing of chalk, candles, soaps and detergent.

Among the five central jails of the state, the inmates of Raipur central jail have produced goods worth more than Rs 1.50 crore. These items include soaps, detergents and phenyl worth Rs 45 lakh, spices worth Rs 4 lakh, knitting work worth Rs 2.5 lakh, offset and screen printing products worth Rs 35.5 lakh, sewing work worth Rs 5 lakh, woodcraft worth Rs 24 lakh, iron and steel industry products worth Rs 33 lakh and embroidery products worth Rs 21,000.

The inmates of Durg central jail have produced goods worth Rs 18.22 lakh including screen printing worth Rs 3.5 lakh, sewing worth Rs 84,000, woodcraft for more than Rs 5 lakh and iron and steel products worth Rs 9 lakh. Similarly the Bilaspur central jail inmates have produced good worth Rs 46.32 lakh including Rs 39 lakh of  offset and screen printing products, Rs 1.5 lakh from woodcraft, Rs 43,000 from steel furniture, Rs 53,000 from sewing, Rs 12,000 from knitting and Rs 7,000 from nylon rope products. The inmates of Jagdalpur central jail have produced goods worth Rs 70.36 lakh in 2013-14. This includes Rs 19.30 lakh from sculpture, Rs 35,000 from knitting, Rs 20.27 lakh from iron and steel products, Rs 1.72 lakh from sewing, Rs 2.51 lakh from woodcraft, Rs 1.52 lakh from spices, and Rs from screen printing.

While the inmates of Ambikapur central jail have produced goods worth more than Rs 4 lakh. This includes knitting products worth Rs 6,000, bamboo craft worth Rs 33,000, washing powder worth Rs 1 lakh, screen printing for Rs 63,000, woodcraft worth Rs 1.75 lakh and sewing work worth Rs 23,000.