SHILLONG: Inmates of the Shillong district jail went on hunger strike on Thursday evening in protest against the poor quality of food served to them and also demanded other amenities. The strike was, however, called off on Friday after the intervention of Additional DGP (Prisons) B.L. Buam.
While the jail inmates cited the poor quality of food and lack of adequate water supply as the reasons for the hunger strike, Buam denied the same and pointed out that the strike was linked to the recovery of mobile phones in the jail.
The jail inmates skipped supper on Thursday and breakfast on Friday, but Buam was able to convince them to call off their strike.
Buam, later, informed the strike was called at the behest a leader of a gang of 10 inmates who demanded Rs.100 as ‘pocket money’, better quality food and uninterrupted water supply.
“We provide food to the jail inmates with the required calories as per the jail manual and there should not be any reason for complaints in this regard,” Buam said.
He also informed that the food was earlier prepared with firewood, but he had arranged for LPG to cook the food faster.
The jail official said that since possession of money by jail inmates was banned as per the jail manual, the demand for pocket money was refused.
Buam further said that the jail authorities had installed plastic pipes to supply water to the jail inmates considering that iron pipes could be misused by them.
Presently, there are 381 under trial prisoners and 30 convicts lodged in Shillong district jail out of whom 21 are lodged in the high security cell.
