Industrial production in the Tiruchi Central Prison is set to get a fillip with the Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Limited (TNPL) providing machinery to the jail for manufacture of file pads by prisoners.
Procured at a cost of Rs. 11 lakh, a composite unit including paper cutting machine, hydraulic press, and calendar machine have been provided to the Central Prison by the TNPL authorities under its corporate social responsibility activity.
The TNPL technical personnel would train the handpicked convicts on handling the machines in manufacturing file pads by recycling wastepaper and old boards.
Convicts serving long terms would be chosen for this vocational trade using machinery.
About 50 convicts would be handpicked for this industrial activity and paid wages for the work they carry out as a rehabilitation measure.
Necessary basic facilities were being put into place prior to commissioning the file-pad manufacturing unit within the sprawling prison.
The unit would function from a shed inside the prison that accommodates remand prisoners, undertrials, and convicts.
Jail authorities would procure the raw material.
Prison authorities told The Hindu that file pads manufactured by the prisoners would be supplied to all government offices across the State.
At present, boards were purchased from outside in the making of file pads with wrappers and tags stuck to it.
The authorities plan to commission the file pad manufacturing unit at the earliest.
A mosaic of productsA mosaic of products was manufactured engaging convicts in the prison industrial units. This includes bed sheets, blankets, towels, sanitary napkins mosquito nets, raincoats, and tunic coats.
A senior prison official said plans were afoot to start a non-vegetarian food court in the prison bazaar besides taking up mushroom cultivation.
