NEW DELHI: The Centre has asked all the states and the Union Territories (UTs) to give financial assistance from a Central fund to poor prisoners, who are unable to secure bail or release from jails on account of their inability to pay the fine awarded to them by various courts due to their financial situation.In an identical communication to the states and the UTs, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has asked them to avail the funds made available by it from where they can draw an appropriate amount to provide benefits to the eligible prisoners to secure bail.It is to be noted here that the MHA provides funds to the states and the UTs through the Central Nodal Agency (CNA), which is administered by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). In the letter the MHA said, “As you are aware, this Ministry 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 is, however, noticed that despite repeated follow-up, funds have mostly remained used as many states and UTs have not identified the eligible prisoners and have not provided the benefit of the scheme to them, the MHA said, adding that though a few of states and UTs used the funds, the overall implementation of the scheme has not been very encouraging.
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