Chennai: Women Lawyers’ Association has requested the Tamil Nadu government to provide housing plots at a subsidised rate for those, who do not have houses on their own.
The office-bearers of Women Lawyers’ Association led by its president V.Nalini and secretary Adhilakshmi Logamurthy on Wednesday met Chief Minister Edappadi K.Palaniswami and submitted a memorandum containing 10 demands.
In their memorandum, among other things they said that many young lawyers were practicing now in courts but they do not have sufficient income to meet their basic needs. Hence, the government may sanction stipend to encourage the young lawyers. They also requested the government to provide hostel to Women lawyers coming from other districts and staying in Chennai to attend courts, considering their safety, they added.
They said the government may provide two and three-wheelers to the differently abled women lawyers free of cost. They also requested the government to provide old age homes and financial aid to the women lawyers who have crossed 60 years of age and staying outside due to family and other problems. They also sought maternity aid to women lawyers. Since the association has 5,000 lawyers as its members and the present building housing the association could not accommodate them all, they requested the government to provide funds for extending the existing building.
To a specific query as to why the women lawyers met the chief minister separately and whether there are any specific issue the woman lawyers are facing, V.Nalini, president of WLA told DC, “There is no specific problem, which we are facing. We expected the Madras High Court Advocates Association (MHAA) to invite us to join them when they met the Chief Minister. However, they did not do so. In fact, in my speech during the 125th anniversary celebration of the Madras high court heritage building on September 16, I made a specific request to the Chief Minister to increase the advocates’ welfare fund and also to sanction stipend for young women lawyers. Therefore, we decided to meet the Chief Minister separately. Accordingly, we met the Chief Minister today and thanked him for enhancing the advocates welfare fund from Rs 5.25 lakh to 7 lakh. We also submitted a representation containing 10 demands which included sanctioning stipend for young women lawyers”.
