The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Coimbatore News : Prisoners to raise saplings for afforestation drive

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Sunday, Nov 16, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

Prisoners to raise saplings for afforestation drive

V.S. Palaniappan

They will be contributing their leisure hours free

Siruthuli will be providing the seeds and farm inputs

Coimbatore: The prisoners at the Coimbatore Central Prison will be contributing their labour for raising one lakh saplings and provide the same to ‘ Siruthuli’ for its afforestation drive.

Superintendent of Central Prisons, P. Govindaraju, said with the concurrence of the Director-General of Police (Prisons), R. Nataraj, and under the supervision of the Deputy Inspector-General of Prisons, Coimbatore Range, S.K. Narayanamoorthy, the prisoners would be volunteering their labour for nursing one lakh saplings from November 21.

The prisoners would be contributing their leisure hours free without wages for raising these saplings in a phased manner.

In the first three phases, 30,000 saplings each would be raised and another 10,000 in the fourth phase.

Siruthuli, a public initiative for conserving water bodies and environment, would be providing the seeds and farm inputs including the bags for holding these saplings to the inmates.

The prisoners would sow the seeds and raise the seedlings in the mother bed and provide grown saplings for the afforestation drive.

In the first phase, the prison department had planned to utilise the services of the convict prisoners and subsequently undertrials would also be considered.

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