Warangal Central Prison all set open fish outlet soon

Warangal: The Warangal Central Prison, which was already running three petrol bunks, an Ayurvedic Village, a wellness centre, My Nation Store that sold several products manufactured by the prisoners, and a host of other initiatives, is all set to open a fish outlet soon.

The prison has a two-acre fishpond behind the high security barracks within its premises. It all happened one-and-a-half-year-ago when the jail authorities dug on its premises for soil crust for laying a path in the prison but as a result, a huge ditch was created on the premises.

The then Director General of Telangana Prisons V K Singh who inspected the jail directed the officials to expand the ditch further to develop it as a fishpond.

They designed it in a way that it would be filled with rainwater that precipitated on the jail compound. Since then the prison officials dropped fingerlings in the pond twice with the assistance of Fisheries Department.

Speaking to The Hans India, Jail Superintendent N Murali Babu said, "the initial plan was to dig a water harvesting pit to recharge the groundwater. But following the directions of the higher ups, we expanded its area and turned it into a fishpond.

Now, it's a multipurpose initiative as it is serving for water harvesting and fishpond." He said that since this pond came into existence, the borewells on the prison premises have plenty of water. Earlier we used to face water problem during the summers, he added.

This apart, the jail's initiative has also brought a considerable change in the neighbourhood – Kothawada, Auto Nagar, Rangampet and Kakatiya Medical College areas – as well as the borewells in these areas which used to go dry ahead of summer are full of waters.

Initially, we dropped 5,000 fingerlings in the pond and later added another 8,000, Murali Babu said. He stated that now a wide range of fish – Bomme, Rohu, Boche, Bangaruteega etc was ready for harvesting.

We have plans to sell the fish at Rs 100 a kilogram, much lesser than the market price, by setting up an outlet in front of our petrol bunks, located adjacent to prison, in a week.