Lucknow: In a fresh and innovative move, a jail superintendent in Uttar Pradesh is offering inmates two extra glasses of milk for giving up ‘beedi smoking’ and ‘chewing gutka’.
The jail superintendent of Kaushambhi district jail, B.S. Mukund has taken the step to make jail a tobacco-free zone, reports Deccan Chronicle.
The Kaushambhi jail has about 642 inmates and nearly 70 percent of them are addicted to beedi smoking or gutka chewing.
“This is to motivate the inmates to give up smoking and gutka completely. We had to give some incentive and we offered them extra milk. The initiative is already showing results and about a dozen prisoners have already given up ‘beedi’ and ‘gutka’,” Mr Mukund said.
Ghanshyam Tiwari, Gajraj Singh, Asrar, Rajesh, Chandan, Shiv Sagar, Ajay Kumar, Anil Kumar and Jitendra are among the prisoners who have opted for half a litre of milk instead of tobacco.
“We plan to turn the Kaushambhi jail into a tobacco-free zone and we are confident of achieving our goal because more and more prisoners are showing an interest in giving up tobacco. More than two dozen prisoners are making a visible effort to give up smoking and gutka”, he said.