Lucknow, June 14 : In a move that will bring respite to the legal fraternity affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has instructed officials to expedite the payment of all the lawyers engaged by the government, as well as private lawyers. Taking note of the extreme difficulty faced by the lawyer community, the Chief Minister has ordered the immediate clearance of bills of the advocates. The pace of work in courts across the state has slowed down owing to the Covid pandemic and has severely affected the lawyers as they had no steady income. Standing by them in these difficult times, the chief minister has assured that the dues of the employees will be cleared soon and the all payments will be released at the earliest. The Uttar Pradesh government has always worked for the welfare of the lawyers. In the four-year tenure of the Yogi Adityanath government, a provision of Rs 5 crore for the corpus fund was made to provide financial assistance to young advocates. A proposal for an amount of Rs 20 crore was made for the construction of Advocate Chamber and development of other infrastructure facilities in various districts of the state. The state government made a budget provision of Rs 10 crore for young advocates to facilitate purchase of books and magazines. The Uttar Pradesh government in the 2021-2022 budget decided to set up National Law University in Prayagraj while Rs 450 crores has been allocated for buildings of courts in districts. An amount of Rs 100 crore is proposed for construction of houses for judges of the High Court. A budget provision of Rs 150 crore has been made for building construction of Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court and Rs 450 crore for Allahabad High Court. The sum of Rs 20 crore received from the sale of welfare stamps is being proposed for transfer to the trustee committee of Lawyers Welfare Fund. /IANS