CM Jagan urges lawyers to show concern for poor

Vijayawada: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has appealed to young lawyers to show concern for the poor and stand by them in the same way the government was standing by them.

With the press of a button at his camp office on Wednesday, the Chief Minister released Rs 1,00,55,000 under the YSR Law Nestham to benefit 2,011 eligible junior advocates. He said the amount will be directly credited into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries.

He said, “The annual scheme would henceforth be implemented two times per annum from this year, extending the help to more junior advocates.”

Jagan Mohan Reddy explained that the government has so far released a total of Rs 35.40 crore under the YSR Law Nestham benefitting 4,248 junior advocates in the last three and half years. “Junior advocates face a lot of difficulties during the first three years of their practice as they belong to the self-employed groups and there are no earnings.”

The monthly stipend of Rs 5,000 each for three years under the scheme would go a long way in helping them stand on their own.

The Chief Minister recalled that the YSR Law Nestham had been promised in the party’s election manifesto to help junior advocates. They had narrated their difficulties to him during his Praja Sankalpa Yatra, he said.

Jagan Mohan Reddy said the government released Rs 25 crore to the needy advocates during the Covid-19 pandemic from the corpus fund of Rs 100 crore  sanctioned for AP state advocates welfare trust. The government’s efforts to stand by the junior advocates would be a boon to them and at the same time they must also make it a point to help the poor with free legal assistance.

Quoting from the works of Irish-American journalist and writer Alexander Cockburn, Jagan Mohan Reddy said the “Weapon of the advocate is the sword of the soldier, not the dagger of the assassin.”

Aspiring junior advocates seeking financial assistance under YSR Law Nestham or the Advocates Welfare Trust may apply online or directly send their requests to the law secretary.

A beneficiary junior lawyer, Ch. Vennela from Guntur, said her father is a small-time employee and mother does tailoring work to sustain the family. The Law Nestham financial assistance is helping her pay the exam fees and the like, and thanked the Chief Minister for the innovative scheme.

 Another junior lawyer, G. Amulya from NTR district, said she is a member of the Bezawada Bar Association for the past one year and aims to be a criminal lawyer. She thanked the CM for offering her the Law Nestham benefits.

Law secretary Satya Prabhakara Rao, Bejawada Bar Association president Chandragiri Vishnuvardhan, senior officials and junior advocates participated in the programme.