Jail staffers organize free kitchens on alternate days

TNN | Apr 18, 2020, 04:14 IST

Kanpur: Following in the footsteps of police and railways, the jail police (bandi rakshaks) have been providing food to around 600 underprivileged people every alternate day.
So far, they have successfully conducted seven such free kitchens.
Jail superintendent Ashish Tiwari informed that the complete project belonged to bandi rakshaks. Tiwary allowed them to use the vacant land as a temporary kitchen.
The bandi rakshaks who took the initiative are Gaurav Dixit, Prateek Pandey, Santosh Sharma, Dinesh Yadav, Ashok Mishra and Alok Singh.
“After we had a discussion on the plight of the poor who are the worst affected lot due to the pandemic as well as the lockdown, we decided to cook and provide free meals to as many needy people as possible,” said Gaurav. “The jail superintendent allowed us to use jail land as a temporary kitchen. In our first free kitchen, we fed around 600 people. Since then, we have been preparing meals every alternate day for the same number of people,” he added.
Gaurav told TOI that he and other bandi rakshaks funded the initiative and also assiste in the prepararion of meals.
“Arranging food for 600 people costs us around Rs 12,000. Due to limited means, we run the kitchen every alternate day and have organized seven free kitchens so far,” said Gaurav.