Hyderabad, October 31: Life convicts and their family members have another reason to celebrate this Diwali with double dhamaka.
A week before the festival, the state government on Saturday issued guidelines for granting special remission to life convicts to mark the Republic Day on January 26, 2011.
A six-member committee under the chairmanship of the principal secretary, Home, was constituted to prepare a list of prisoners eligible for release.
Following representations from various political parties, the prisoners and also their family members seeking special remission to those who have completed five or seven years of sentence, the prisoners who have crossed 65 years or suffering from chronic diseases, the government took the decision on the long-pending issue.
The life convicts eligible for remission are: women who will have served five years and total sentence of seven years as on December 31; decrepit prisoners as defined in Rule 321 (h) of the AP Prison Rules, 1979 and those aged more than 65 years and will have undergone an actual sentence of five years and total sentence of seven years as on December 31.
Convicts including those governed by Section 433-A, the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Central Act 2 of 1974) and who will have undergone an actual sentence of seven years and total sentence of 10 years as on December 31 are also eligible for remission.
The director general and inspector general of Prisons and Correctional Services will prepare the list of prison-wise eligible convicts as per the guidelines and send them for scrutiny of the six-member committee.
–Agencies