Concerned with severe water crisis, Minister for Prison Balwant Singh Ramoowalia initiated a novel idea to save water by motivating prisoners to volunteer to save and conserve water.
Besides, Ramoowalia also mooted the role of prisoners in saving sparrow by facilitating nests, water, food and other natural atmosphere for the avians inside the jail premises.
``We are the first in the country to draw a road map on motivating the inmates to save water for the future generation,” asserted Ramoowalia.
"There are 92000 prisoners lodged in 67 jails of Uttar Pradesh which are manned by 6499 employees. So, if everyone saves one litre of water everyday, then more than 1 lakh litres of water could be saved in a day which amounts to 365 lakh litres a year,” explained Ramoowalia.
"This would definitely go a long way in helping to solve water crisis in the state and that too through these small efforts," he pointed out.
The minister further said that six inmates from one barrack would be encouraged to volunteer and motivate fellow inmates on saving water and arrange for water harvesting in all the jails.
"Before the monsoon, facilities will be created for water harvesting so that it could help increasing the water level. The scehem is being taken on a priority in Bundekhand region. The water that is left behind after washing clothes, utensils, bath etc will be used to water the fields on the jail campus," said the Jail minister.
Ramoowalia also reminded that to ensure clean and safe water supply in all the jails, RO water purifiers were being installed to negate the threat of water -borne diseases.
"Besides, the inmates would also be motivated to volunteer in saving birds, particularly the endangered sparrows, in this hot and humid summer. With their help, jail staff would create natural habitat for birds and provide them nest, food and water so that avian count increases in coming years," said the minister.
Ramoowalia also stressed that he was trying to improve the condition of jails in the state by starting `e-facilities’, provide facilitaties to the kin of inmates who come to meet them in jail, install PCOs inside the jails, release prisoners on `parole’ and most importantly, set free all prisoners above 70-years of age.