District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) has launched a campaign to give legal assistance to family members of prisoners - under trial and remand prisoners - lodged in the district jail here.
Principal District Judge (PDJ) R. Shanmuga Sundaram, who launched the campaign at the district jail here on Tuesday, said through the initiative, undertaken on the behest of national and State legal services authorities, was aimed at offering legal and non-legal assistance to prisoners and their family members.
Pointing that families of prisoners faced several problems when the breadwinners were lodged in prison, the PDJ, who is the chairman of DLSA, said the authority, after interacting with the prisoners, would reach out to their families that required assistance.
Sub Judge V. Ramalingam, who is the secretary of DLSA, said a resource committee comprising advocates, Para-Legal Volunteers (PLV), social workers and representatives of non-governmental organisations had been constituted to interact with the prisoners and chalk out assistances needed for their families.
He said a total of 122 prisoners were lodged at the district jail – 22 undertrial prisoners and 100 remand prisoners and they would be covered in phases, adding the DLSA would also help the familieis get birth certificates, Aadhaar cards, ration cards, old age pension, school admissions and educational assistance.
The resource committee would analyse the issues of the jail inmates and conduct interaction with their family members, he said. The DLSA had given an orientation to the committee members, Mr Ramalingam added. Those constituted the committee included advocates V. Kathiravan, K. Muthu, SKG Vikraman, R. Thiyagarajan, PLVs – Murugesan, Iyappan, Vinoth and Bharathi and Counsellors Bhavaneeswari and Minor Selvi.
