Satya Prakash
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, April 2
BSP chief Mayawati on Tuesday defended in the Supreme Court the construction of life-size statues of herself and BSP election symbol elephant in various parks in Uttar Pradesh. She said those represented the “will of the people” and there was nothing new in it.
In an affidavit filed in the court, she said public money was spent in accordance with the law.
“Funds for the construction of the said memorials and installation of statues have been sanctioned through budgetary allocation after approval of the budget by the state Legislature and passing of relevant Appropriation Act by the state Legislature in accordance with the Constitution of India and rules,” the BSP chief said.
The Supreme Court had on February 8 expressed its “tentative view” that she needed to refund to the state exchequer the public money spent on the statues.
While hearing a 10-year-old petition by advocate Ravi Kant, the top court had asked her to file an affidavit.
Contending that public money cannot be spent on creating own statues and the symbol of one’s political party, petitioner Ravi Kant alleged that crores of rupees were spent during 2008-09 to glorify the then Chief Minister Mayawati. He has also demanded a CBI probe into the matter.
On Tuesday, she said the memorials and statues of herself and other leaders were “intended to promote values and ideals of various saints, gurus, social reformers and leaders among the public and not intended to promote the symbol of the BSP or to glorify” herself.
She sought dismissal of the petition terming it “politically motivated and a gross abuse of the process of court of law”.
Maintaining that construction of memorials and installation of statues in India was not a new phenomenon, she pointed out that “during the Congress regime, the agencies of the central government and state government installed statues of various Congress leaders namely, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, PV Narasimha Rao etc across the country with public funds,” she said, adding other political parties in power at the Centre and states have also done it.
from The Tribune https://ift.tt/2WCV5Xm
via Today’s News Headlines
No comments: