UP to stop construction of statues, memorial parks India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

The Mayawati-led Uttar Pradesh Government on Tuesday agreed to stop further construction of all the statues and memorials in the state. The state government in it's undertaking to the apex court said: " No further construction would be done at the site until the matter was decided by the court." The Uttar Pradesh Government came under heavy fire form the Supreme Court for reportedly going ahead with the construction of memorial in violation of its order and agreed to stop further construction till the court decides on the matter. An apex court bench consisting of Justices B.N. Agrawal and Aftab Alam was initially inclined to restrain the construction, but relented and recorded an undertaking from Uttar Pradesh government. During the hearing, the court wondered whether it is legally permissible for any government to incur colossal expenditure from public exchequer for constructing of memorials. Setting aside the State Government's contention that the project estimated around Rs 2,600 crores had cabinet approval, the bench said it would examine the legal validity of the decision. The bench granted the state government time till September 24 to file a reply and posted the matter for further hearing to September 29.