Berhampur, Sep 10: Hill brooms made by the inmates of a prison in Odisha’s Ganjam district will soon be available in the market, officials said on Friday.
The district administration, in association with the Odisha Rural Development and Marketing Society (ORMAS) and Mission Shakti, provided a three-day training from Tuesday to the prisoners of the Chhatrapur sub-jail on making of hill brooms.
District Collector Vijay Kulange, District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) project director Shinde Bhausaheb inaugurated the training programme, which aims to make the prisoners self-reliant.
As many as 44 out of around 150 inmates of the jail took the training and shown their interest to make the hill broom inside the jail.
“We have provided all the raw materials such as hill broom, bamboo stick and plastic pipe to them,” said Jyoti Prakash Mohanty, deputy chief executive of the ORMAS district unit.
“As the making charge, we are providing Rs 7 per piece of hill broom,” he said.
A producer group of Burutula panchayat in Patrapur block in the district provided them raw material to make the brooms, he said.
The brooms will be available in all the retail shops of Ganjam Hata, set up by the district administration and wholesalers in Berhampur, while Ganjam Gruhini Producers’ Company Ltd will market the products.
Besides, training on making dry foods such as chips of potato, sweet potato and banana was imparted to the inmates. At least 15 inmates were trained to make these food items to be marketed by Ganjam Gruhini Co.
