Young lawyers, who had high hopes from Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal’s maiden visit to the District Bar Association (DBA) on Monday, were in for a major disappointment when Badal did not announce any grant for the construction of the young lawyers’ chambers, which is under construction in the judicial complex here.

As the Deputy CM visited the Ludhiana DBA for the first time after assuming charge of his post, the young lawyers hoped that the junior Badal, who despite being 47-years-old claims to be the face of “young Punjab”, will announce some grant for the construction of the lawyers’ chambers which is under-construction for the last two years.

The young DBA members seemed to be disappointed when in his nearly half-an-hour speech, Badal kept harping on the tune of overall development of Punjab and the city but did not announce any grant for the lawyers’ chambers. This despite the fact that Chief Parliamentary Secretary Harish Rai Dhanda and former minister Mahesh Inder Singh Grewal, who are also DBA members, had requested the deputy CM to announce some grant for the young lawyers’ chambers. Sukhbir Badal assured that he would give grant for this purpose after the Lok Sabha elections. He, however, announced a Rs 10-lakh grant for the DBA library. Speaking to Newsline, some young lawyers expressed their discontent. Advocate David Gill said, “What do we say, the present government has not even released the Rs 50 lakh grant which had been announced by former CM Capt Amarinder Singh for the young lawyers’ chambers.”