Lucknow, Jan 5 (IANS): Nearly 50,000 copies each of religious books Hanuman Chalisa and Sundar Kand will be distributed among prisoners in all the 72 district jails, sub jails and central prisons across Uttar Pradesh before the ‘Pran Pratishtha’ ceremony of Ram Lalla in Ayodhya on January 22.

State Prisons Minister Dharamveer Prajapati said that live streaming of Pran Pratishtha event will be done at all jails for prisoners.

“Practice of providing devotional and religious books to prisoners is very old. Fifty thousand copies of Hanuman Chalisa and Sundar Kand have been ordered from Gita Press, Gorakhpur after immense rise in demand for the books among prisoners recently,” the Minister said.

He said the recitation of these hymns and books would help prisoners to improve themselves and live a better life after completing their jail terms.

The Hanuman Chalisa is a Hindu devotional hymn of 40 verses in praise of Lord Hanuman, while Sundar Kand is the fifth chapter in the Ramayana in which the principal protagonist is not Ram, but Hanuman.

“Jail administration has been asked to make special arrangements in jails so that prisoners could also see live streaming of the event. It is one of the rarest events that everybody in the country including prisoners should witness” he said.

“The recitation and listening of such religious and devotional books bring a positive change in behaviour of prisoners,” he added.

The Minister had been promoting such activities among prisoners across the state for the last some years.

Earlier, he directed playing Gayatri Mantra and Mahamritunjaya Mantra in jail barracks.