Malkangiri: It may seem incredible to most, but the fact is that a section of the Malkangiri District Jail in Odisha, which houses over 600 inmates, has been running on electricity hooked from the power line running along a nearby by-pass.
The matter came to the fore after this reporter contacted the junior engineer of the local Electricity Department, who passed on the information to their vigilance team. Soon, a vigilance team visited the Malkangari District Jail to verify the complaint.
The team searched the jail premises for three hours on Thursday and found that the jail’s kitchen, barrack, and some other locations used electricity stolen from a power line passing near the jail. After an extensive search, the Electricity Department vigilance team leader Nakula Behera told media persons a connection from an electric pole outside the jail went to the kitchen, barrack, and other places.
“The Electricity Department will penalise the prison authorities for stealing power,” Behera said, adding, “The current load is around 15 kilowatts.”
Now, it remains to be seen what initiatives are taken by the jail authorities to end this menace. In fact, this is for the first time that any prison in India has been found to steal electricity to run its operations.
