Mayawati Pulled up for Statues

All construction of memorials in Lucknow must stop in 6 hours: SC to Maya govt
TNN 11 September 2009, 01:32pm IST

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed all construction activity, repair, maintenance at various sites for memorials of B R Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram in Lucknow. ( Watch Video )

It ordered the Uttar Pradesh government to remove all machinery from seven construction sites in Lucknow. The apex court also gave the Mayawati government six hours to remove construction workers from all sites. Barring the watch and wards staff, no person shall be allowed to be present in and around the sites after 7 pm today, it said.

A Bench of Justices B N Agrawal and Aftab Alam also issued show cause notice to the state chief secretary for allegedly violating its September 8 order in which the UP government had given an undertaking that it will not carry out any further construction activities.

The apex court said that the chief secretary shall in "unambiguous" terms explain the nature of construction activity purportedly being carried out at the site as alleged in media reports.

The apex court asked the correspondents of the media organisations, who highlighted the construction activities to furnish all materials in support of their reports.

On Tuesday, rapping the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh for spending a whopping Rs 2,600 crore on memorials for Kanshiram and other Dalit leaders in Lucknow city, the Supreme Court had said it would examine the constitutional validity of such memorials for political leaders, including ex-Prime Ministers, at taxpayers' money.

A bench of Justices B N Aggrawal and Aftab Alam minced no words in chiding the Mayawati government for defending its move to construct the memorials when the country's largest state's GDP stood around a mere two per cent.

"As per the reports you are spending Rs 2,600 crore. Your state GDP is only around 2 per cent. We may ask the government as to how such a colossal expenditure can be incurred.

"We have to examine it. It (decision) cannot be arbitrary because it involves tax payers' money. You cannot spend it as you like it," the bench told senior counsel Satish Chandra Mishra appearing for the state.

At last a political party is being made answerable for unnecessary expenses.
Let us hope this acts as a precedent and political parties in future will think twice before wasting tax-payers money.