The Central Prison at Poojapura in the city has come out with yet another project after the success of its sales of special chappati and chicken curry. Under the ‘Hunger-free city’ project, 2,000 vegetarian meals will be prepared at the jail’s new kitchen on a daily basis, to be distributed free of cost to the poor and needy.
Minister for Home Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan inaugurated the fully equipped kitchen unit for the project on the Central Prison premises on Thursday.
The ‘Hunger-free city' project, to be launched on April 30, will be implemented with the support of the Social Security Mission. In the first phase, 2,000 noon meal packets will be distributed to the patients and the needy at the Government Medical College Hospital and other government hospitals in the city.
ADVERTISEMENT
About 100 inmates of the prison will be actively involved in this scheme. The special kitchen was built in less than a month by trained prisoners themselves. The kitchen is equipped with modern amenities to prepare the noon-meal packets , each of which will contain rice, dal curry/ sambhar, 'thoran', 'aviyal' and pickle. Vegetables will be sourced from the prison garden and rice and provisions will be purchased from the State-run Supplyco. The kitchen will initially run on LPG. However, the authorities are planning to set up a solar energy unit for the kitchen and also to take up steam cooking. “Earlier there were plans to sell the meal at Rs.20 each packet to the public, the rate at which chappati and chicken curry is sold through our mobile outlets. The Social Security Mission entrusted us with the job of preparing meals, for which the Mission would pay Rs.20 a packet in advance. In the second phase, the scheme would be extended to old-age homes and other institutions,” said B. Pradeep, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Prisons (South Zone).