HimVani
Shimla: Taking yet another bold step in ensuring social justice, the Himachal Pradesh government has approved the formulation of a scheme to be called as ‘Victim Welfare Fund’ with the initial corpus fund of Rs 5 lakhs from the state government. Under the scheme, crime victims would be provided financial assistance out of the wages earned by prisoners undergoing punishment for committing very heinous crimes like murder, rape, culpable homicide and dowry death, etc.
The wages earned by the convicted prisoners would be divided into three parts. In the first part, 35 percent of the wages earned by the convicts in a month shall be deposited in the fund in a separate bank account and one time compensation paid to the victims of the offence, and in the case of death of the victim, the compensation shall be paid to the immediate family members. In the second part, 35 percent wages earned by the prisoner shall form Prisoners Welfare Fund and utilised under social welfare activities of the jail inmates. In the third part, the remaining 30 percent of the wages earned shall be paid to the actual wage earner, which he would be free to spend on his personal requirements.
