Officials at the Department of Prison Management (DoPM) said they had sent a list of 220 prisoners to the cabinet for amnesty but they were not released as the cabinet did not take any decision to grant amnesty to them.
The government used to grant amnesty to prisoners during Dashain, Democracy Day and Republic Day. Those serving jail for nine different heinous crimes including murder, rape and drug smuggling are not entitled to such amnesty.
DoPM officials said prisoners who have already served 50 percent of their terms have started staging protests in several prisons across the country demanding amnesty.
“This is just a facility and the provision of granting amnesty is never an obligation of the government,” said a DoPM official. “The problem arose after the prisoners started taking this facility as their rights.”
Among other things, the primary consideration for granting amnesty to such prisoners has been to create space in crammed prisons to accommodate newcomers. “We are finding hard times to accommodate prisoners as the number of new prisoners is on rise in the recent months,” added the official.
The number of prisoners has already exceeded 9,500 this year, up from 6,300 on an average until last year.
Home Ministry spokesperson Jaya Mukunda Khanal said they have already forwarded a proposal to the cabinet to grant amnesty to some prisoners. “The cabinet may not have been able to take a decision on the issue on time due to the prime minister´s New York visit,” he said. Khanal said next cabinet meeting could take a decision on the issue.
Related story
President Bhandari grants amnesty to 818 jailbirds on Republic...
-1781882999.webp)
