Foundation stone laid for fuel outlet at Central Jail

In a first-of-its-kind initiative in the Northeast, foundation stone for a petrol pump for Prison Department was laid opposite Central Jail here on Thursday by director general (DG) of Police, Prisons & Home Guards Rupin Sharma.
Set up in association with Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the petrol pump would use the services of convicts who had been released as well as those still serving their sentences, thereby providing them a scope for rehabilitation post their release.
Addressing the gathering, Sharma said the Prison department had planned the initiative in 2016-17 and that he had met chairman of IOC in 2022 in this regard, while a series of meetings were also held between department and IOC officials.
He disclosed that construction of the petrol pump would start in the first week of February and that it was expected to be completed within three months.
He mentioned that prison inmates faced many hardships once they were released into the community. Social stigmatisation for being an ex-convict acted as a major barrier to successful community reintegration, he added.
The DG disclosed that the department has received approval from the government to start another such project at District Jail here.
He remarked that people often did not realise how difficult it was to run a jail. There was a substantial number of people in the jail requiring food, shelter, bathrooms, health facilities, etc. Though the authorities did not have enough funds to meet all these expenses, he noted that due to intervention of the judiciary and civil society groups, there was a lot of emphasis on improving the condition of prison and prisoners.
He hoped that the upcoming project would help generate some profit for improving the prison and inmates.
Sharma also disclosed that more than 50 inmates and prison staff were given skill development training, including tailoring, for three months.
Referring to the projects on pipeline, he said National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL) and Hindustan Petroleum had donated one unit each of baking machinery. Of these, one had been kept at Central Jail, Dimapur and the other had already been sent to District Jail, Mon.
He stated that electrification and other necessary work would be carried out in another two or three months.
In his speech, IOC Assam Oil Division general manager (retail) Raja Muni Tamrakar acknowledged the initiative of the DG for rehabilitating the inmates and for welfare of the prison staff. He confirmed this would be the first such retail outlet in the Northeast.
He mentioned that many petrol pumps had been set up in association with police and prisons department, all of which had been running successfully.
Tamrakar revealed that petrol pumps were now technologically more advanced and had several facilities. He said they were all computerised, controlled via an auto machine system that connected them to IOC through Intrusion Detection and Prevention System (IDPS) so that there was transparency in fuel delivery.
The programme was chaired by Central Jail, Dimapur jailor Dr. Obed Yanthan and vote of thanks was delivered by AIG (Prisons) Khushito Awomi.