As many as 50 inmates of Central Prison, Parappana Agrahara, staged an impromptu protest claiming they had not been paid their wages for six months. Inmates demanded that the authorities release their wages immediately.
Without their daily wages, the inmates were finding it difficult to support their families. The group met senior officials of the Prison Department requesting their intervention to resolve this issue. According to sources, prison officials have promised to rectify this problem.
A skilled labour class inmate (jobs include carpentry, carpet weaving) is entitled to a daily wage of ₹50. Those performing ‘un-skilled labour’ work as helpers and aides earn ₹40 a day and people in the non-skilled labour category (involves gardening, cleaning and odd jobs) earn ₹30. Their wages are credited to their accounts every month.
Sources in the Prison Department said the problem is due to a technical glitch in the integrated financial management system used by the State government. However, no prison official was willing to come on record on either the glitch or the protest.
Inmates also requested prison officials to reinstate the parole facility, which had been withheld temporarily after former DIG (Prisons) D. Roopa’s report on irregularities in the prison and preferential treatment to some prisoners.
