Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati, on Saturday, justified installation of statues in many parts of Uttar Pradesh saying that ‘it was the will of the people’ after Supreme Court rapped Mayawati of installing the statues for her political gain with the use of public money and she will have to reimburse the amount.

In an affidavit filed by the former chief minister, Mayawati claimed that the installation of statues is the outcome of public interest. However, the people regard the expenditure on the installation as a gross and shallow exercise in political narcissism using public money.

The Supreme Court had previously charged her for using public money for the expenditure on statues. It said, that prima facie, she will have to return the money as she has used public money for the installation of the statues that depict the elephants of the Bahujan Samaj Party and herself.

On February 8, Supreme Court after hearing the plea seeking to restrain her from spending ublic money. supreme sourt ramped her for the move. The bench headed by Ranjan Gogoi had said that the matter had a tentative view and will be heard on April 2.

In her defense, Mayawati claimed that the statues and the parks have been constructed with the money received from the well-wishers of the BSP.

Mayawati has served as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh between 2007 and 2011. Mayawati has ordered the construction and installation of the number of statues celebrating Bahujan Samaj Party icons during her term as the chief minister.

During her tenure, ample amount of public money was spent by the state government in the construction of parks and statues in Lucknow when a complaint was made that a total loss of ₹111 crore was suffered. They had built multiple Dalit memorials, that include the statue of BSP founder Kanshi Ram and BSP’s election symbol Elephant.

Acting on the complaint of the losses, the ED filed a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to probe the matter.

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