By IANS,
Lucknow, April 14 (IANS) On Dalit icon Babasaheb Ambedkar’s birth anniversary here Thursday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati announced an unprecedented largesse of Rs.560 crore for enhancing facilities for the state judiciary.
Apart from a Rs.500 crore allocation to build a new and modern building for the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court, she announced a special sanction of Rs.60 crore for creating a kitty towards providing an insurance cover for lawyers, besides improving facilities in the bar councils and lawyers chambers. Yet another sanction of Rs.50 crore was announced towards building a High Court library for the benefit of judges.
Addressing a gathering to mark the Ambedkar Jayanti celebrations here, the chief minister made it a point to remind lawyers that she was “simply honouring my commitment to the legal community because I am not like other political leaders who have been making all kinds of announcements without actually doing anything”.
“Take the case of erecting a new building for the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court; even though the central government has not released any fund for the purpose so far, we have decided to give away 70 percent of the money forthwith,” she said.
The chief minister said “an additional fund of Rs.50 crore will be sanctioned for the library facility for judges”.
The announcement comes close on the heels of the demand raised by a group of lawyers led by Gaurav Bhatia, general secretary of Virendra Bhatia Adhivakta Vichar Manch.
Bhatia had recently spearheaded a march of about 3,000 lawyers here for the allocation of funds to cater to their welfare needs. The march had however turned violent when the lawyers were stopped from marching towards the chief minister’s residence.
Mayawati also announced that free legal facilities would be provided to BPL card holders and beneficiaries of the ‘Mukhyamantri Mahamaya Gareeb Arthik Madad Yojna’ to contest cases, except those in which the government is a party.