The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has taken a serious note of States and Union Territories not utilizing the central funds provided for helping the poor and eligible prisoners, who are unable to secure bail or release from prison due to non-payment of fine owing to financial constraints.
MHA in a communique said, “Despite repeated follow-up, funds have remained unutilised as many States and UTs have not identified the eligible prisoners and have not provided the benefit of the scheme to them. While a few states and UTs have utilised the funds, the overall implementation of the scheme by them has not been very encouraging.”
“As you are aware, the Ministry of Home Affairs had introduced the ‘Support to Poor Prisoners Scheme’ in May, 2023, with the objective of providing financial assistance to states and UTs for extending relief to poor prisoners who are unable to secure bail or release from prison due to non-payment of fine on account of financial constraints,” it said.
The MHA has asked all the States and UTs to utilize the funds provided through the Central Nodal Agency (CNA) for assisting the eligible prisoners. The National Crime Records Bureau has been designated as the CNA for this scheme.
The MHA has already issued guidelines and a standard operating procedure (SOP) for the implementation of the scheme.
“As part of the guidelines, States and UTs were advised to constitute an ’empowered committee’ in each district and an ‘oversight committee’ at the state headquarters level,” the MHA said.
According to the guidelines, these committees are responsible for sanctioning financial aid to the eligible prisoners.
The MHA said that during the several conferences held with the states and UTs to review the implementation of the scheme, its importance was consistently emphasised, highlighting its potential to bring relief to the poor prisoners who remain incarcerated due to financial constraints.
“It may be appreciated that effective implementation of the scheme cannot only help mitigate the problems faced by the poor prisoners, but also contribute towards reducing overcrowding in prisons.
“The States and UTs are, therefore, requested to make concerted efforts in identifying the eligible prisoners as per the guidelines of the scheme and hold regular meetings of the empowered committees in each district for providing relief to the poor prisoners,” the MHA said—(KNO)
