After SC, Allahabad HC issues notices to UP Govt on statues

In another major setback to the Uttar Pradesh government, Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court today served notices to the Mayawati regime over the installation of several statues and appointment of the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC).

Hearing two separate Public Interest Litigations (PIL’s), Justices Rajiv Sharma and Dr Shatish Chandra fixed July 10 as the next date of hearing in both the cases.

In both the cases, the judges issued notices to the state government to place its reply before the hearing date.

In a PIL filed by Col. Satveer Singh Yadav, it has been charged that against the norms, several statues had been installed in the state capital which has more than 3 feet of height. Besides, these statues had been erected on National Highways, which was also against the set norms, he alleged.

On June 29, citing the ground realities prevailing in UP, the Supreme Court also took serious note of huge diversion of public funds for installing statues or photos of powerful political leaders and directed Chief Minister Mayawati, the state government and others to respond within four weeks to a PIL in this regard.

The petition sought a CBI probe into expenditure of over Rs 1,200 crore in installation of statues of Ms Mayawati, late Kanshi Ram, B R Ambedkar and elephants, the election symbol of BSP.

The court had cited the ground realities prevailing in UP such as the lowest human development index, lowest literacy rate and 59 million people struggling to survive under the BPL category and a high infant mortality rate.