JOIN USCoronavirus: Maharashtra jail inmates to make masks
To tide over the severe shortage of masks in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak, the Maharashtra government has found a novel way to meet the crisis - make masks in jails.
The move is the brainchild of home minister Anil Deshmukh of the NCP.
"Increased demand for masks and the scarcity due to coronavirus outbreak has seen prisons across Maharashtra stepping in to manufacture them to help tide over the crisis," Deshmukh tweeted.
A veteran politician from Vidarbha, Deshmukh said the prison administration accepted his idea of prisoners taking up manufacture of masks.
"These masks will be used by them and the prisons administration and the remaining are being sold to mask suppliers. The prisoners will get money for this work," he said.
Deshmukh has also asked the prison administration to screen all new jail inmates in view of the COVID-19 outbreak.
He has also directed that the jail inmates already staying in the prison should undergo medical tests.