Prisoners Shifted, 135-Year-Old Telangana Jail Emptied To Build Hospital

Telangana: The 135-year-old Nizam-era jail built on 69 acre is to be vacated within a month and handed over to the health department to build a super-speciality hospital within a year

It was an unusual sight, with prisoners at Warangal Central Jail packing up all their belongings, bedding, clothes, buckets and pans, to shift home. They looked a rather patient and organised bunch, all neatly dressed in jail clothes and waiting outside the walls for transport to arrive, as though at a railway station. Once the buses came to take them elsewhere, they carried their meagre belongings, and went in proper queues to board and leave, on what would be a rare outing. The first batch of 119 inmates including 39 women, moved out, accompanied by heavy security, with escort vehicles and armed policeman. After all, they would travel over three hours. The men had to reach Cherlapally Jail in Hyderabad and the women the special women's prison. Over the next two weeks, all 966 inmates here, including extremists and political prisoners, will be sent to other jails across Telangana. That is because the 135-year-old Nizam-era jail built on 69 acre is to be vacated within a month and handed over to the health department to build a super-speciality hospital within a year.