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| SC refuses to curb UP govt from installing statues |
| Press Trust of India / New Delhi Jul 10, 2009, 12:55 IST |
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The Supreme Court today refused to restrain the Uttar Pradesh government from carrying out work for installation of statues of Chief Minister Mayawati and other dalit leaders at a park in Noida.
The apex Court said it cannot interfere in the matter in which the approval has been granted by the state Cabinet.
"If it has been approved by the government, this court cannot interfere," a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan said, when an application seeking to maintain the status quo on the works was mentioned before it.
"If the cabinet has approved it, then we can't do anything," the Bench added.
The Uttar Pradesh government had proposed to install statues of several BSP leaders including that of Mayawati and party founder Kanshi Ram in the gigantic 4-km long walled area along the bank of river Yamuna in Noida.
At the outset, the Court said such a petition should have been filed before the Allahabad High Court where other matters relating to the installation of statues were going on.
"First, you should have gone to the High Court where some more petitions relating to it are going on," the Bench told advocate Ravi Kant.
The apex Court had on June 29 issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government on Kant's petition, alleging misuse of public funds for the installation of statues of Mayawati, Kanshi Ram and that of elephants — BSP's election symbol — at a park in Lucknow.
The advocate today alleged that the four weeks time granted to the state government to reply to the June notice on his petition was being used to speed up the works of installation of the statues.
The Court said that the fresh application will be heard along with the main petition.
Senior advocates Harish Salve and Satish Chandra Mishra, a close aide of Mayawati, opposed the fresh application filed by Kant.
The PIL, filed by the advocate, had sought a direction to restrain Mayawati from installing her statues and those of elephants at public places with public fund and demanded a CBI probe into the misuse of state exchequer.
Kant had submitted before the bench that the information gathered through an RTI disclosed that 60 statues of elephants were being installed by Uttar Pradesh government at a cost of Rs 52.20 crore at public places by utilising state funds.
The PIL alleged that spending crores of rupees to "falsely glorify" leaders in a state like Uttar Pradesh, which is part of the so called 'BIMARU' states having Human Development Index among the lowest in the country, is a complete misuse of public money.
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