Purnia central jail becomes Bihar's first prison to have ATM for inmates

PATNA: In a first of its kind move, the authorities in Bihar's Purnia district have decided to install an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) at the district jail for inmates to withdraw cash for daily use.

According to officials, the move is aimed at preventing the crowding of inmates' family members and relatives at the jail gate.

"We had written to State Bank of India (SBI) officials to set up an ATM. We hope the facility will be extended inside the jail in around two weeks," a report in Hindustan Times quoted Purnia central jail superintendent Jitendra Kumar as saying.

According to the jail superintendent, 600 inmates out of the total 750 have their accounts in different banks. So far 400 inmates have been issued ATM cards while the rest would be given ATM cards soon.

For 4 to 8 hours of work, the jail inmates are paid between Rs 52 to Rs 103 wages and the money is deposited into their accounts.

The wages of the inmates are likely to go up further to Rs 112-Rs 156 if some proposed small and cottage industries are set up inside prison.

Recently, the masks made by jail inmates were supplied to other jails in Bihar including Kosi. The jail manual stipulates that an inmate can keep up to Rs 500 cash.

"Till January 2019, the wages were paid by cheques and now the money is transferred to their accounts. An ATM can lessen the crowd at the jail gate as most of them come here to give money to the inmates. The ATM will definitely help jail administration in many ways. The inmates can use cards to purchase daily use items like soaps, hair oil, eatables against the payment they receive for doing work in the prison," the report further quoted the jail superintendent as saying.