Ranchi: Jailed RJD president Lalu Prasad is earning Rs 14 a day for gardening at the Birsa Munda jail here alongwith other convicts in the fodder scam.
The former Bihar chief minister is tending lawns, flower beds and vegetable patches at the jail in Hotwar, after he was allotted this work a week ago. The Jharkhand high court had rejected his bail plea on October 30.
The other convicts in the scam 3 IAS and 1 IRS officer have turned teachers inside the jail.
According to sources Lalu is enjoying the work as he is supervising work and instructing other gardeners.
He will get a day off each week. Spread over 52 acres, the jail boasts of well-maintained lawns, gardens and vegetable plantations.
Jail authorities decided not to allot him teaching due to security reasons, though Lalu holds a political science degree.
Around 30% of 3,000-odd prisoners at Hotwar are hardcore criminals and 10% Maoists.
Lalu lives in the VIP ward. His room has an attached bathroom and he gets TV, newspapers, magazines, a mosquito net, cot, bedding with two pillows and separate cooks.
“I allotted him gardening work after considering all aspects of his work. In case of a teaching job, Lalu needed to be in a hall with around 300 criminals, many of them extremely dangerous,” said jail superintendent Virendra Kumar Singh.
Former IAS officers Fulchand Singh, Mahesh Sinha and Beck Julius, and IRS officer A C Choudhary, teach inmates pursuing distance learning courses.
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