Move to ‘cut’ mutton, fish from jail menu, chicken curry, soya chunks likely to replace

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: There is a recommendation to change the food menu of prisoners at the jails in Kerala. The proposals of S Sreejith, the head of the jail department says, can save Rs 10 crore a year by removing mutton and fish from the menu. The recommendation is that this could help to reduce the health issues among the prisoners. Instead of mutton and fish, chicken curry, soya chunks and eggs have been recommended.

Mutton is presently served once a week and fish twice a week. Fish curry of 140 grams is served for lunch on Mondays and Wednesdays, while 100 grams of mutton for lunch on Saturdays. The annual expenditure on mutton is Rs 5.75 crore, while fish costs Rs 4.8 crore. If mutton is replaced with chicken curry, it would cost only Rs 1.26 crore. Replacing fish with soya and eggs would cost Rs 3.4 crore.

Meantime, the government has also been recommended to rename the Central Jail as a ‘Correctional and Management Centre’ and jails from district jails to sub-jails as ‘Transit Justice Homes.’ There is also a recommendation to rename the jail headquarters as the ‘Department of Correctional Services Headquarters.’ However, the government has not yet taken a decision on these proposals.