Biratnagar, January 22:

Altogether 12 inmates of the Morang prison are suffering from mental illnesses. Though the prison can accommodate 250 people, 480 prisoners, including women, have been kept in the prison.

Aniruddha Prasad Mehta, an assistant health worker who has been attending to the prisoners, says congested environment at the prison is to blame for mental illnesses among the prisoners. “The prisoners were fine when they came here,” a staffer of the prison administration, Kumar Basnet, says, adding that three health workers have been attending to the prisoners.

According to the prison administration, Ashok Shah, Rabin Magar, Jeet Bahadur Rai, Amit Dev, Nar Bahadur Magar, Sitaram Bhattarai, Bal Bahadur Thapa, Rabiya Rishidev, Roshan Limbu, Indira Ghimire and Yam Nath Khanal are among those who have been suffering from mental illnesses.

“Inmates have been suffering from depression because they have been compelled to spend time in overcrowded rooms. They have not been provided with counselling,” Anil Mehta, another health worker, says, adding that lack of counselling services has given rise to other mental illnesses among the inmates.

The inmates speak to oneself and cannot concentrate. Three health workers are attending to the inmates.