Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday announced that special facilities will be provided to all Muslim prisoners during the holy month of Ramzan.
Muslim inmates observing ‘roza’ in jails across the state will henceforth be entitled to special food both for ‘sehri’ in the morning as well as for ‘iftar’ in the evening.
According to an official spokesman, “All rozedars (those observing fast) will be entitled to a glass of ‘sherbat’ made out of one lemon, 30 grams of sugar and 50 grams of ice together with 250 grams of fruit and two biscuits for their ‘iftar’, during the summer months.” Likewise, for the morning ‘sehri, they would be given 50 grams of bread, 100 grams of curd along with 15 grams of sugar.
The spokesman said the arrangement will not incur any extra cost as all these items would be made available out of the savings from non consumption of food by ‘rozedar’ prisoners, otherwise entitled to breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea.
Even as the ruling Samajwadi Party claimed the announcement had no political motive, the Bharatiya Janata Party dubbed it as yet another step to woo the Muslim vote bank.
