Striking UP lawyers will head to Delhi today

Capping their agitation for a separate high court bench for western Uttar Pradesh, lawyers will set out for Delhi on Wednesday morning to protest outside Parliament. They intend to reach the Capital in 30 buses. One of the lawyers has threatened to immolate himself if their demand is not met.

Striking lawyers stayed away from work again on Tuesday, leaving litigants stranded in districts across western UP. Last Friday, lawyers blocked the Dasna bridge in Ghaziabad, connecting the region to Delhi and later handed officials a memorandum addressed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

On Monday evening, lawyers held a meeting and also met Congress leader Rashid Alvi to press their demand.

"In the last three decades, we have only got assurances for a separate bench in Meerut. Nothing happened. This is the first time that we are going to lay siege to Parliament House. It just goes to show how serious we are this time," said Ashok Sharma, president of the High Court Bench Kendriya Sangharsh Samiti.In a letter to Sharma, lawyer Anil Jangala threatened to immolate himself if the demand is not met. "We have been fighting for a cause for several years but no one paid heed. I wish to draw the attention of political leaders," Jangala wrote in the letter.

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