View source for Memorials, parks in Lucknow, GB Nagar (UP)

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[[Category:India |U ]]
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=PIL of 2009 =
==2019: SC’s interim observations==
[https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2019%2F02%2F09&entity=Ar00711&sk=9FB94963&mode=text  AmitAnand Choudhary, Maya has to pay back public money used for statues: SC, February 9, 2019: ''The Times of India'']

[[File: Number of memorials and parks constructed in Lucknow and GB Nagar, NOIDA (UP), during Kum. Mayawati’s three tenures as CM.jpg|Number of memorials and parks constructed in Lucknow and GB Nagar, NOIDA (UP), during Kum. Mayawati’s three tenures as CM <br/> From: [https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2019%2F02%2F09&entity=Ar00711&sk=9FB94963&mode=text  AmitAnand Choudhary, Maya has to pay back public money used for statues: SC, February 9, 2019: ''The Times of India'']|frame|500px]]

[[File: Memorials and parks constructed in Lucknow and GB Nagar, NOIDA (UP), during Kum. Mayawati’s three tenures as CM.jpg|Memorials and parks constructed in Lucknow and GB Nagar/ NOIDA (UP), during Kum. Mayawati’s three tenures as CM: some details <br/> From: [https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2019%2F02%2F09&entity=Ar00711&sk=9FB94963&mode=text  AmitAnand Choudhary, Maya has to pay back public money used for statues: SC, February 9, 2019: ''The Times of India'']|frame|500px]]


''Court Says View Tentative, Final Hearing April 2''

A decade after BSP chief Mayawati’s term as UP chief minister saw public funds being lavishly spent on statues of herself and BSP’s party symbol, the elephant, the decision has returned to haunt her with the Supreme Court asking her to refund the money.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, while hearing a 2009 PIL filed against the state government and Mayawati, observed: “Madam Mayawati, reimburse to the exchequer public money you spent on the elephants. We are of the tentative view that you should pay the public money from your pocket.” The bench said it would adjudicate the issue and posted the case to April 2 for final hearing.

The Maya government allocated money from the state budget for 2008-09 and 2009-10 for the projects and it is alleged that around Rs 2,000 crore was spent, including the cost of land. The PIL seeks direction to restrain the state government from misusing public funds for political gains. The petitioner alleged that 90% of the UP cultural department’s budget was used for the statues of Maya, BSP founder Kanshi Ram and elephants.


'''60 elephant statues in a park cost ₹52cr, says PIL'''

Hundreds of crores of public money is being spent by the UP government for personal glorification by erecting statues particularly of leaders who are presently (the reference was in 2009) in power.

Sixty elephant statues were installed in a park at a cost of Rs 52.20 crore and it is not only wastage of public money but also contrary to circulars issued by the Election Commission,” petitioner Ravi Kant said in his PIL.

The petitioner informed the bench that the ED recently conducted searches at seven premises of senior government officials directly involved in building memorials awarded during the BSP regime. The bench agreed to his plea to file additional documents.

The Supreme Court had, on the very first hearing in the case on June 29, 2009, slammed the state and said the government must not “fritter away” public money meant for the welfare of people. “The huge public funds which are otherwise meant for improving conditions of millions of people living below the poverty line cannot be legitimately diverted for erecting statues and parks. The state must properly set its priorities. The authorities concerned in power must realise that they are holding public money in trust and it must be judiciously spent,” the Supreme Court had said while issuing notice to the state and the then CM.

In the last 10 years, the PIL came up for hearing 17 times before different benches but no progress was made in deciding the case on whether taxpayers’ money could be used for such purposes.

Facing flak from the Supreme Court, the Mayawati government had given an undertaking in 2009 that there would be no further construction activities at the memorials for Kanshi Ram and other Dalit leaders in Lucknow.