LAHORE - Punjab government is considering to ban the supply of canteen items to the prisoners in order to discourage the over-charging being exercised by the contractors outside the 32 jails of the province, sources in the Prisons Department said on Friday. The government would arrange alternate facility to maintain the requirements of the prisoners. It is worth mentioning here that government from different quarters have received complaints of over-charging by the canteen owners established outside the jails of the province. Sources claimed that over-charging was only possible with the connivance of jail authorities specially jail superintendent who is the immediate supervisor of the prison. The exercise starts after the contractors offer heavy bid to get the contract and after paying heavy payments they recover their amount by over-charging the prisoner. An insider of the prison department said that this year some contracts were awarded against heavy amounts, for example, contract of Adyala Jail was awarded against payment of Rs7.4 millions as there was only jail population of 5000 prisoners. Contract of central jail Lahore was awarded against payment of Rs60 millions and similarly contracts of other 32 jails of the Punjab were warded against heavy payment due to the reasons best known to the jail authorities. It merits mention here that Punjab government has made food menu of the prisoners very healthy which includes chicken meat for four days a week, one day beef and other days pulse and vegetable apart from sweet dish drink and tea. An employee of jail department said Prison Department should only ensure food containing required calories to the prisoners apart from the serving them with refreshment and sweet dishes. He said, look a man comes to jail after committing dacoity, murder or any other crime and there he is being served with drinks and sweets in jail what sort of punishment is this. Another employee of the jail said that after splendid menu and items supplied by the visitors and family members of the prisoners there is no need of other items from the canteens. Sources claimed that government might establish utility stores outside jails to provide subsidised items to the prisoners like general public.