Supreme Court reserves Maya judgment

New Delhi: The Supreme Court (SC) reserved its judgment on the Mayawati government’s plea on Thursday for scrapping the stay on constructions in the periphery of BSP symbols — statues of party founder Kanshi Ram and Mayawati, and the BSP poll symbol, elephant.

A bench of justices HS Bedi and AK Patnaik may deliver the order next week after perusing the state government’s affidavit giving details of the immediate works required for the upkeep of the statues constructed at different public places like parks.

The court will also pass an order on another plea by the state government to transfer cases relating to wastage of public money estimated at Rs2,600 crore on these statues. The Uttar Pradesh government wanted the cases pending in the Allahabad high court to be transferred to the top court.

The bench indicated that it could refer the entire case of wastage of public money on statues in a state that’s suffering from draught, malnutrition and miserable health care, back to HC for necessary direction.

The case was filed by Gomti Nagar Jan Kalyan Mahasamiti in the Allahabad high court seeking a stay on the construction of these memorials, on the ground that it amounted to misuse of public funds.

The HC had stayed the projects, which were vacated by the SC in September 2009, after the UP government told the apex court that it would not proceed with further construction at these sites.
But, the state government took a U-turn and started completion of the projects on war footing. This enraged the SC which ordered the Central Industrial Security Force to protect the memorial sites. The SC also banned any construction or demolition at those sites.
UP’s acting chief secretary VK Sharma said that since the public funds provided for the statue projects have already been spent, it is not compulsory for the contractor to complete the projects.