Sri Lanka, Sept. 1 -- The Government has decided to grant Presidential pardons for the inmates who have been imprisoned for minor offences.

This decision has been taken considering the overcrowding in prisons. Sri Lanka's prisons have the capacity to accommodate 11, 762 inmates, but currently there are around 33,000 inmates, the Prison Department indicates.

Commissioner General of Prisons Thushara Upuldeniya has been given instructions by the Government to finalize the list of inmates who could be released under the Presidential Pardon.

According to him, those who have been imprisoned for failure of paying fines, those who are over 65 years old and have spent a half of the punishment and those who have completed the punishment for mino...