VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has said the YSR Law Nestham Scheme will henceforth be implemented twice a year instead of once to extend aid to more number of junior advocates in the State.
Jagan on Wednesday released Rs 1,00,55,000 under the Law Nestham scheme to benefit 2,011 eligible junior advocates in the State. The amount will be directly credited into the bank accounts of beneficiaries.
Speaking on the occasion, he said the amount will be provided as stipend to junior advocates, who got themselves enrolled for practice after completing their law degree.
The State government has so far released a total of Rs 35.40 crore under the Law Nestham scheme benefiting 4,248 junior advocates in the last three-and-a-half years. “Generally, junior advocates face a lot of difficulties in the first three years of practice as they belong to self-employed groups. The monthly stipend of Rs 5,000 each for three years under the scheme will go a long way in helping them stand on their own,” he observed.
The Law Nestham was launched as per the YSRC election manifesto to help junior advocates financially as they narrated their difficulties to Jagan during his Praja Sankalpa Yatra.Jagan, who interacted with the advocates from a couple of districts on the occasion, said the government released Rs 25 crore to the needy during the Covid-19 pandemic from the corpus fund of Rs 100 crore sanctioned for the AP State Advocates Welfare Trust.
“The government’s efforts to stand by the junior advocates will win their hearts,’’ he said, suggesting that they also help the poor in turn. Quoting from the works of Irish-American journalist and writer Alexander Cockburn, he 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 the Law Nestham or from the Advocates Welfare Trust can apply online or directly send their requests to the Law Secretary, he added.Law Secretary G Satya Prabhakara Rao, Bezawada Bar Association president Chandragiri Vishnuvardhan, senior officials and junior advocates took part in the programme.