Thiruchirapalli

“In a move to transform criminals into responsible citizens, the Tiruchy Central prison authorities have initiated steps to provide them a field for farming activities a few years ago. At present, the officials allocated an area of 67 acres inside the Central prison premises in which they cultivate various crops in three different farm lands. Among them, half an acre has been allocated for shallots cultivation.

Considering the high demand in the market, as many as 20 inmates are roped in to raise shallots and the yield was remarkable and they could harvest at least 250 kgs of fine variety of shallots on Friday.

“The inmates have harvested around 250 kgs of shallots and they were of fine quality on par with the markets outside. We sell them 20 per cent less than the market price outside. On Friday it was sold at Rs 100 per kg outside and we sold it at Rs 80 for people who were present on the harvest day,” said Prison Bazaar Superintendent A Thirumurgan.