Outside Alipore Correctional Home for Women, a portion had been earmarked for an outlet to be run by inmates to sell products made by inmates of different correctional homes.
A coffee shop to be run by jail inmates which was supposed to be inaugurated early this year has met a bureaucratic stumbling block which has led to the shelving of the idea.
Outside Alipore Correctional Home for Women, a portion had been earmarked for an outlet to be run by inmates to sell products made by inmates of different correctional homes.
"PWD had been assigned to build two rooms covering about 600 sq ft. Of the two rooms one was meanth to be a coffee shop and the other a showroom-cum-shop for the products that the inmates produce. The idea was planned when Haider Aziz Safwi was the minister of correctional administration. PWD had completed the work last year, but after that it had been lying idle," said a senior official of the department.
State minister of correctional administration Abani Mohan Joardar told DNA, "I have no idea of any such plan. There has been a construction beside the gate of the women's correctional home, but I didn't know that it was supposed to be a coffee shop."
Sources said that Joardar did not know about the whole plan because he had been ill for a long time after he replaced Safwi and Rajib Banerjee held additional charges of correctional homes' minister at that time.
DG and IG of state correctional services, Arun Kumar Gupta admitted the delay. "PWD had put up the facility on time. Now it is in limbo, stuck in some legal formalities. But though a timeframe cannot be specified, it will be put up for sure," he said.
Ghosh, when contacted, said that those were not his lookout as he looked into the administration part.
It was found out that the showroom was planned to be used to display things such as textiles, utensils, garments, show pieces and food items. There were also plans to make bread, biscuits and other confectionary items available at the coffee shop. The showroom and coffee shop was supposed to be open to the public who could walk in and buy stuff.
Sources also said that inmates had been trained according to their interests and a word with a leading coffee restaurant chain was underway. "It is intended to ensure that the inmates, once they leave prison, can earn their own livelihood. This would have been a pilot project, and if we can pull it off successfully then there will be more such projects in different districts," said another senior jail official.
Sources said that a similar project of putting up a Metro Cash and Carry outlet inside Presidency Correctional Home, the brainchild of the then ADG Adhir Sharma, never saw that light of the day owing to his tussle with Sivaji Ghosh, principal secretary of state department of correctional administration, and later the entire project was terminated. Sharma was transferred after that.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "Alipore-Correctional")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}