AP Prisons Department sets eyes on petro bucks

HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh Prisons Department has finalised plans to increase business turnover to Rs 500 crore in 2012-13 by opening eight more petrol filling stations and by increasing other revenue generating operations like furniture making at the central prisons.Already, a petrol pump is running successfully at Kadapa prison.All the business ventures at the jails are handled by inmates.The APPD’s business turnover in 2011-12 so far is about Rs 200 crore.According to the director general of prisons CN Gopinatha Reddy, the department earns an average profit of 7 percent on goods manufactured at various jails.The petrol filling station set up on the premises of Kadapa central prison five months ago is doing good business, he said.By end of March this year, the APPD is going to operate eight more petrol pumps at different central prisons in the state.So, the turnover will increase, which in turn will help welfare of prisoners as well as the development of prisons.This financial year, the department was sanctioned Rs 10 crore by the government for repair and renovation of sub-jails and modernisation of central prisons.“If business increases to Rs 500 crore per annum, we will have Rs 35 crore per year,” he said.Since there is big turnover in running petrol filling stations, the APPD has been decided to set them up at eight more locations, most likely at Cherlapally (RR district), Warangal, Rajahmundry, Adavivaram (Visakhapatnam district), Kurnool and Nellore, and two other places.Gopinatha Reddy said it took them more than two years to convince the Indian Oil Corporation to allow them establish a petrol pump on the jail premises at Kadapa.The Kadapa prison petrol pump is run by 21 inmates who have shown good conduct over a period of time and proved eligible for semiopen jail activity.These inmates work in shifts and each earns Rs 70 per day.“The petrol pump was started as part of the jail rehabilitation programme.Once they learn work, they will be able to work in other petrol stations when released,” he said.