New Delhi: The Supreme Court has given big relief to BSP supremo Mayawati. On Wednesday, it disposed of a petition filed in 2009, which had sought an investigation into the alleged expenditure of more than Rs 2,000 crore from the UP government's budget on installing elephant statues and personal glorification during his tenure as chief minister. This order has come on a day when it is Mayawati's birthday. She turned 69 today. A bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma, while disposing of the petition filed by two lawyers Ravikant and Sukumar, said that most of the prayers have become unfruitful.
The bench said the Election Commission (EC) has already issued guidelines on the issue and the installation of the statues cannot be stayed as they have already been installed. The PIL had alleged that a total of Rs 2,000 crore from the state budget of 2008-09 and 2009-10, when Mayawati was the chief minister, was used to install statues of the BSP supremo and the party's election symbol (elephant) at different places. Was done for.
Petitioner's claim in the petition
The petition, filed through advocate Prakash Kumar Singh, claimed that the installation of 60 elephant statues at a cost of Rs 52.2 crore is not only a waste of public money but is also contrary to the circulars issued by the Election Commission. Mayawati had on April 2, 2019, justified its decision and told the apex court that the construction of life-size statues of her and the party's election symbol 'elephant' at various places in Uttar Pradesh during her tenure as the state's chief minister was prohibited. Represents “the will of the people”. He had told the court that the Congress had also in the past installed statues of its leaders including Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and PV Narasimha Rao across the country.
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Mayawati had given the answer
Mayawati had also mentioned recent examples of installing statues by state governments, including the statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, known as the Statue of Unity, in Gujarat. Apart from this, the BSP supremo had said that the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government has constructed the 221 meter high statue of Lord Ram in Ayodhya with the government treasury. He said that thus, construction of monuments and installation of statues is not a new phenomenon in India.
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