Minister for Law, Courts and Prisons Durai Murugan distributed financial relief to the tune of Rs.10.03 lakh under the Victim Compensation Fund of the Department of Prisons to 65 family members of 35 inmates of the Central Prison, Vellore at a function at the Prison Warders' Training School here on Sunday.
Mr. Durai Murugan said that the relief was being disbursed from the Victim Compensation Fund, which is created by setting apart a portion of the wages earned by the inmates. Though the government issued the order for creating the Victim Compensation Fund in the prisons department in 2000 itself, the G.O. was being implemented only now, he said.
Referring to the request of K.R. Shyam Sundar, Additional Director General of Police (Prisons), to provide promotional opportunities to the prison warders and other prison officials on a par with the police department on the grounds that several persons remained as warders even after completing 10 years of service, the Minister said that he would discuss the issue with the ADGP (Prisons) and other higher prison officials and convey the request to the Chief Minister.
C. Rajendran, Collector of Vellore said that the relief provided to the family members of the prison inmates is meant to compensate the loss of income suffered by the families on account of the imprisonment of the inmates who have been bread-winners for the families. Mr. Shyam Sundar said that a sum of Rs.4.5 crore is currently available with the Victim Compensation Fund . At present, the inmates got wages of Rs.60, Rs.50 and Rs.40 for skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled work respectively. He wanted the wages to be doubled so that greater compensation could be provided to the family members towards their rehabilitation. At present, the prison inmates earned Rs.3 crore per year. Twenty percent of the amount, that is, Rs.60 lakh, is set apart for being disbursed to the families. P. Thamarai Kannan, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Vellore Range and N. Arivuselvam, Superintendent of Police, Vellore district, spoke. Sheela Rajan, chairperson of the Vellore District Panchayat, P. Karthikeyan, Mayor of Vellore, A. Chinnasamy, Pernambut MLA and T.A. Mohammed Saqhy, former MP spoke. R. Duraisamy, DIG of Prisons, Chennai Range welcomed the gathering. N. Sekar, Superintendent, Central Prison, Vellore proposed a vote of thanks.
