Political prisoners in Andhra Pradesh jails observed a day's fast on November 15, 2008. Following is a press note on the subject issued by the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners:
We, on behalf of Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP)
express our support and solidarity, to the Political Prisoners who are on hunger strike for a day. These Political Prisoners are languishing in jails all over the state and they are demanding the State to accept their just and legal demands.
The Political Prisoners throughout the Andhra Pradesh state have been fighting for the just demands for more than a decade. But the state government is silent on many of their long standing demands. The CRPP strongly condemns the undemocratic attitude of the Government and appeal to all democrats and rights organizations, various people’s organizations and all opposition parties, in the state, to support the struggle of the prisoners. It should be noted that the relentless struggle of the Political Prisoners in the jails of Andhra Pradesh in the 90s had made possible the achievement of many rights. But the state government is—slowly but steadily—nullifying those rights day by day. For example, the state government has issued a G.O facilitating the release of certain class of prisoners like lifers. An advocate had filed a SLP in the Supreme Court against the G.O. The state government had been silent on the SLP till date. As a result many prisoners are languishing in jails even though they come under the purview of the said GO. Similarly, non-lifers also are in thousands. According to the rules in force, many of them should be released if the state government grants them remission of sentence.
According to the rules followed, there must be an advisory board in each jail, but the state government has not yet constituted them. Of late, for want of proper medical assistance prisoners are dying in hundreds in prisons all over Andhra Pradesh. Some prisoners are even committing suicide. There are quite a good number of prisoners in our jails who are 60 or above in age. In addition to these, many prisoners are incarcerated by the arbitrary sentence imposed by jail authorities, without any enquiry or trial what so ever. In this background, the Political Prisoners in the prisons of A.P. have resorted to protest by sitting on hunger strike for a day.
Today, on the 15th November 2008, Political Prisoners in the jails of Andhra Pradesh have taken a decision to observe hunger strike and protest against the anti-people policy of the State. In many cases, there is no nominal enquiry even. The political prisoners are expressing their protest against all these criminal irregularities and negligence like insufficient supply of ration, non-observance of rules in the jail manual. When a prisoner is convicted in more then one case, all the sentences should run concurrently. But this rule grossly violated so as to ensure that the prisoner will never see the light of the day throughout his/her life. Similarly, if a Political Prisoner is accused in cases in two or three states, the P.T. warrants received from those courts are not even informed to the prisoners nor their counsel.
We at the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners once again appeal to all the Democrats, Rights organizations, people’s organizations and all the opposition parties in Andhra Pradesh to stand with the just struggle of the Political Prisoners in the state. CRPP demands:
1. Release the political prisoners unconditionally.
2. Restore right to life with human dignity of prisoners
3. Fulfill the demands of Political Prisoners
4. Political parties should clear their stand on political prisoners, on the state of human rights and these issues must be in their election manifestoes.
Lateef Mohd khan V.V.Bala Krishna BSA.Satya narayana
Secretary CRPP Secretary .CRPP Advocate and E.C member
B.Ravindra Nath Advocate
E.C.member of CRPP
Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners,
2-2-121/3/E, Nallakunta, Hyderabad-500044
Contact Numbers:- 09441163893. 09848798708. 09391051586
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