Inmates serving life sentence in Chennai’s Puzhal Central Prison are converting the banned Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes into customised file pads.
A specially trained team of about 25-30 inmates churn out 1,000 file pads on a daily basis in the prison. Inmates are expected to work 25 days a month making these file pads, and are paid between Rs 160 and Rs 200 for eight hours of work a day – depending on whether they are skilled, semi-skilled or unskilled.
The shredded notes are first turned into pulp, and then poured into a die-mould so the mixture solidifies. They are then converted into the hard pads – the entire thing is a manual process.
Speaking to PTI, TN Prison Department, Deputy Inspector General (in-charge), A Murugesan said, "While the Reserve Bank of India has offered 70 tons of shredded notes to us, Puzhal jail officials have so far taken delivery of nine tons...We will bring the rest of it in a phased manner."
He added that about 1.5 tons of banned currency has been used to make the file pads so far.
A senior official told PTI that the stationery is being used in state government departments and their agencies.
The official also said that they are in talks to upgrade the hand-made stationery-making unit at Puzhal into a semi-automated facility, which will enhance productivity.
The file pads being used at government offices are semi-corrugated, hard pad with corners embellished with red-coloured cloth. There are approximately 1.5 lakh file-pads produced every month in Tamil Nadu.
(This article was originally published on The News Minute)
(With inputs from PTI)
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