Lucknow, May 27 (IANS): Over 10,000 undertrials and convicts across jails in Uttar Pradesh have either been granted interim bail or parole in order to decongest the over-crowded prisons in the wake of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This has been done in compliance with the Supreme Court directives.

According to a Prison Department spokesman, nearly 8,463 undertrials have been released on bail, while 1,660 convicts were given a six-week parole.

Of the total 10,123 released from 71 central and state prisons, a maximum of 704 undertrial inmates were freedon interim bail from the Ghaziabad district prison, 445 in Aligarh, 398 in Lucknow and 397 in Gautam Buddha Nagar.

There are more than 1 lakh inmates lodged in jails across the state.

The Department had come up with 54 temporary jails where suspects arrested in fresh cases are quarantined for 14 days before they were moved to permanent ones.

In a statement, the Department said the more than 24,000 inmates, above the age of 45, have been vaccinated.

Earlier, a high-powered committee, comprising Acting Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court Justice Sanjay Yadav, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Avanish Kumar Awasthi and the state's Director General (Prisons) Anand Kumar had sought a list of eligible prisoners in compliance with the Supreme Court directive.

A similar exercise was undertaken last year during the first Covid-19 wave when 11,000 prisoners were granted parole.

Several inmates had jumped parole after which efforts were made to trace them and bring them back.