Show-cause Notice to Mayawati on Statues Expenses

For using public money to install statues of herself and others, the Supreme Court has issued a show-cause notice to UP Chief Minister Mayawati. 

Taking cognizance of the issue, the vacation bench comprising of Justice Dalveer Bhandari and AK Ganguly instructed the state government to submit an affidavit within four weeks specifying arguments as to why public money was used to put in statues across the state.

A Delhi-based advocate Ravi Kant had filed a PIL to seek probe against Mayawati for “misusing” crores of rupees of public money for putting in statues of herself and other Dalit leaders like Dr BR Ambedkar, Kanshi Ram and the party’s elephant symbol.

The apex court also sent a notice to Chief Minister Mayawati.

The petition said that Rs 1,258 crores have been splurged on installation of these statues, all from the state exchequer, and the total plan layout is Rs 2,000 crores to glorify falsely the CM. 

However, the court did not put any stay on the ongoing construction of statues and memorials in the state.

The UP government in its response is expected to take the stand that all proposals regarding the building of memorials and statues have been duly passed by the government with adequate allocation having been done in the budget itself, thereby it cannot be claimed that the money used for building the monuments have been siphoned off from other developmental works.

In fact, fearing action from the SC, the BSP supremo had unveiled 15 statues, which include that of party founder Kanshi Ram and herself on June 25, before the matter came up for hearing in the court.

Opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh have launched a tirade against the Chief Minister for the project and has termed the unveiling of the statues as an attempt to pre-empt the Supreme Court from putting it on hold.