After having developed its own water treatment plant, the authorities are now planning to set up a horticulture hub within the complex so that the inmates can make their confinement productive.
"The Tura and Williamnagar jails have horticulture hubs already which are doing pretty well," said a senior official in the Shillong jail.
The Meghalaya jail department director general (DG), Kulbir Kishan, said the department had already contacted the state horticulture department for assistance to start a horticulture farm within the Shillong jail complex. He, however, added that availability of land in the jail was limited and no major plantation programme could be undertaken.
"Even if the area is small, we will try and do something with the limited resources," he said Kishan had said earlier, Shillong jail did not have enough water and had to purchase it from the Shillong Municipal Board at a cost of Rs 25,000 a month.
Kishan said he got in touch with the PWD and PHE and carried out drilling on the premises to find water.
"The water was tested and certified for use," he added. The water treatment plant was put in place and now the problem of water scarcity has been solved. "We are now saving Rs 25,000 a month and using the money for other purposes," the DG said.
Kishan iterated that the horticulture hubs in Tura and Williamnagar jails are "doing very well" as the jail compounds there were bigger than Shillong. He informed that in Tura and Williamnagar jails around 10,000 pineapples were yielded in one season alone.
Besides pineapple, ginger is also grown in these two jails, which are providing gainful employment to the convicts, the jail DG said.
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