Wednesday, Apr 24, 2024 | Last Update : 12:17 AM IST
71 prisoners in state to be freed
State to send proposal to Election Commission of India for approval.
Mumbai: The state home department is planning to release 71 prisoners across the state on April 6, the 89th anniversary of the historic Salt March’s conclusion. These prisoners had been convicted for non-heinous crimes and their conduct was found to be good. However, the proposal will be sent to the Election Commission of India (ECI) for its approval, said a home department official.
The Centre is celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi from October 2, 2018, to October 2, 2019, and the special remission to prisoners is the part of the celebrations. The prisoners include 14 inmates in Yerawada, five in Thane, two in Bhandara, three in Amravati, one in Wardha, one in Aurangabad, seven in Nashik Road, three in Kolhapur, 12 in Taloja, two in Nagpur and six in Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail will be released on April 6.
Officials said that as the home department doesn’t want to take a risk owing to the present enforcement of the model code of conduct (MCC) in the country, the proposal will be sent to the ECI within two days.
“The ECI will give its approval in the next couple of days,” an official, who is privy to the development, said.
The file concerned was sent for discussion to the state chief secretary’s off-ice last week. Chief secretary (CS) U.P.S. Madan held a meeting with home department officials on the proposal on Saturday, the minutes of which will be sent to the home depar-tment on Monday by the CS’s office.
The CS will decide if the file needs to be sent to the ECI or not. A discussion was held as to whether releasing the prisoners would violate the MCC. As per Clause 5.2.1 (vii-b), Chapter 5 of the MCC, beneficiary-projects whe-re specific beneficiaries have been identified, by name, before coming of the MCC into force can be continued by government agencies without reference to ECI.
Officials said, “The chief minister, who heads the home department, has approved the names of the beneficiaries before MCC came into effect. Howe-ver, governor Ch. Vidyasa-gar Rao signed the file after it came in-to effect.”
