Hyderabad sources have stated that Telangana Prisons Department is planning to raise the number of petrol pumps operated by it across the state to 100 by the end of 2018, to provide employment to more number of former prisoners and also to make it self-reliant. According to sources the department already operates 13 petrol pumps in different districts, manned by as many as 150 released prisoners and nearly 200 inmates, besides former jail authorities.
Presently the state run oil companies are in the process of going for bids to procure private lands for setting up more petrol outlets on lease and will hand over them to the Telangana prisons department. Director General (Prisons and Correctional Services), V K Singh told "We will open seven more petrol pumps in the next two months and the target is to run a total of 100 petrol pumps by the year end".
Singh further said the department has plans to start 1,000 'village
outlets' (selling products manufactured by inmates) in different villages
across the state and our objective is to become self-reliant and to give
employment to all the ex-prisoners, single women and orphans and to curb crime.
We hope that in the 2021 budget, the Jail Department will not have a need for
budgetary allocations".
