Official sources said Dara Singh began hunger strike to press the demand for doubling the quota of bath soap for each prisoner.

The prisoners at the jail have been provided with soap weighing 55 gm each in a month but Dara has been demanding the same should be raised to 125 gms each.

He earlier had given a 15-day notice to the Inspector General of Police (prison) to concede the demand.

On Wednesday, however, Dara raised two more demands which included the transfer of jail store in-charge Harish Chandra Jena and improvement in the alleged sub-standard qualities of food now being served to the inmates.

The jail sources said that he had taken his lunch on Tuesday and had since then been on liquid diet. He got himself admitted into the jail hospital on Tuesday evening.

The senior Superintendent of Baripada Circle Jail when contacted said the stores and kitchen and sanitation affairs were looked after and managed by members of the Panchayat Council of the jail.

He further said the members of the council are elected by the prisoners and that they have never complained of any substandard quality of food supplied to them.

UNI XC DP PC VD RAI2231