Lawyers not in favour of district status to Batala

Manmeet Singh Gill

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 12

While Congress leaders have been squabbling to take credit for the proposed new district Batala, 2,500 lawyers at the Amritsar district courts have been unhappy.

Advocates fear that Mehta and Beas police stations could be attached to Batala, which would mean less work for them. Earlier, Pathankot district was carved out of Gurdaspur in 2011, which did not left it with much geographical area and population.

Advocate Gurpreet Singh Panesar, former secretary, Amritsar Bar Association, announced to oppose any move to attach areas falling under Amritsar to the proposed new district.

Panesar said political and bureaucratic circles were abuzz that few police stations would be removed from Amritsar and attached with Batala. “It will be against the interests of lawyers and their supporting staff at Amritsar district courts. Beas has better connectivity with Amritsar than Batala,” said Panesar.

Advocate Kuljeet Singh Malawali said, “Lawyers had suffered when Tarn Taran was made a new district in 2006.” He said the governments should create new districts only if these help people with better governance and should not do so only for political reasons.

Advocates Shashiveer Sharma and Swarandeep Singh, said consensus was building among legal fraternity to oppose any move to bifurcate Amritsar.