Kanpur, Feb. 19 -- Uttar Pradesh has planned to messenger holy water from the Maha Kumbh site in Prayagraj to 68 district jails and seven centrals across the state to allow prisoners to bathe in the sacred water, officials of prison and government aware of the development said on Tuesday.

The initiative,a brainchild of state prisons minister Dara Singh Chauhan, is an extension of a scheme first implemented in the Unnao district/central jail, where 800 inmates bathed in the water from the Triveni Sangam on Monday.

There are 89,200 prisoners, including 67,200 convicts and 2,700 undertrials, lodged in 75 jails in Uttar Pradesh.

Director general of prisons PV Ramashastry confirmed that orders were issued to jails to conduct the ritual and ...