HYDERABAD: Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has asked the police department to release prisoners with good conduct on the occasion of Independence Day Celebrations.

He has asked officials to prepare a list for such prisoners, an official release read.

The CM has also gone through the guidelines for the prisoners release.

CM KCR had held a meeting with the Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, DG (Prisons) Rajiv Trivedi and DGP M Mahender Reddy at Pragathi Bhavan here on Wednesday, July 22.

Earlier in April, the process of temporary release of under-trial and remand prisoners in Telangana in the wake of coronavirus outbreak had begun.

On March 23, the Supreme Court had directed all the states and Union Territories to constitute high-level committees to consider releasing on parole or interim bail prisoners and undertrials for offences entailing up to seven-year jail term to decongest prisons in view of COVID-19.

As per the court's directive, the state government had constituted a panel and District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) began identifying eligible prisoners to be freed.

In Telangana, the sanctioned accommodation in all the jails was 7,150 whereas 5,750 inmates were lodged in different prisons, clearly indicating that the facilities across the state were not overcrowded.

Since the lockdown was announced, nearly 800 prisoners were granted bail and released in Telangana in normal course as their advocates filed bail petitions online and through video conference. As the number of convicts lodged across the state jails was less, they can file for parole which is granted by the government, an official had said.