YS Jagan exhorts advocates to stand by poor people; releases YSR Law Nestham for 2,011 jr lawyers

AMARAVATHI: Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy on Wednesday released Rs.1,00,55,000 under the YSR Law Nestham to benefit 2011 eligible junior advocates across the State. The amount will be directly credited into the bank accounts of beneficiaries.

Releasing the amount with the click of a button virtually at the camp office here on Wednesday, the Chief Minister said the amount would be disbursed as stipend to junior advocates who were enrolled for practice after completing their law degree.

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 faced lot of difficulties during the first three years of practice as they belonged to self-employed groups, the Chief Minister said adding that the monthly stipend of Rs. 5000 each for three years under the scheme would go a long way in helping them stand on their own.

YSR Law Nestham was introduced as per the Party election manifesto to help junior advocates financially as they narrated their difficulties during Jagan’s Praja Sankalpa Yatra. The annual scheme would henceforth be implemented yearly twice for extending help to more junior advocates, he said.

He said 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 gain a place for it in their hearts, he added, suggesting that they should also, in turn, help the poor.

Quoting from the works of Irish-American journalist and writer Alexander Cockburn, the Chief Minister said the ‘weapon of the advocate is the sword of the soldier, not the dagger of the assassin,’ and appealed to the beneficiaries to show concern for the poor and stand by them the same way the Government stood by them.

Aspiring junior advocates seeking financial assistance under YSR Law Nestham or the Advocates Welfare Trust could apply online or directly send their requests to the Law Secretary, he suggested. The Chief Minister also interacted with some of the beneficiaries virtually and wished them well in their careers.

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