Centre OKs Nitish request for amnesty to prisoners

PATNA: Amid reports of renewed bonhomie between the JD (U) and BJP, the Centre on Wednesday accepted CM Nitish Kumar’s suggestion to grant special remission to prisoners to commemorate Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary.
While addressing a meeting of the NITI Aayog’s governing council in Delhi on June 17, Nitish had urged PM Narendra Modi to grant amnesty to the prisoners, especially women and those above 60 years of age.Modi had presided over the meet.
Nitish had also suggested that books on Bapu should be made available to schools across the country so that boys and girls could get to know, understand and imbibe the values and ideals of Gandhi.
Precisely a month on, a Union cabinet meet chaired by PM Modi on Wednesday approved a proposal to grant special remission to prisoners of certain categories, who would be released in three phases — on gandhi’s birth anniversary on October 2 this year; on Champaran satyagrah anniversary on April 10 next year and again on Gandhi’s birth anniversary on October 2 next year.
The beneficiaries will include women convicts of 55 years and above, who have completed 50% of their sentence period; transgender convicts of 55 years and above, who have completed 50% of their sentence period; male convicts of 60 years and above, who have completed 50% of sentence period; convicts with 70% and more disability who have completed 50% of sentence period; terminally ill convicts and convicts who have completed 66% of sentence period.
The remission will not apply to prisoners convicted for an offence for which the sentence is death or where death sentence has been commuted to life imprisonment.
Sources said the Union ministry of home affairs would soon issue an advisory to all states, asking them to process the cases of prisoner eligible for special remission.