SC asks Mayawati to stop Noida park construction

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati suffered another jolt on Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) founder Kanshi Ram’s third death anniversary on Friday. The Supreme Court (SC) restrained the BSP chief from constructing statues and memorials of her Dalit mentors, elephants (party symbol) and her own in a Noida park.

Mayawati was keen to inaugurate the park on October 9 so that she could pay a befitting tribute to Kanshi Ram. But the SC’s order shattered her dream. The apex court directed its central empowered committee to inspect the site and determine whether the Rs685-crore projects flouted environment protection norms. The committee’s findings  confirmed its doubts.

“It’s a huge project. At least 6,000 trees may have been uprooted to materialise Mayawati’s dream — Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar Park.” The state did not seek a clearance from the environment ministry before starting work on the project. Hence, the committee suggested banning it.

However, justices KG Balakrishnan, SH Kapadia and Aftab Alam allowed the Noida administration to continue other works at the multi-crore project. The bench said it will hear the PIL challenging the destruction forests for materialising the project on October 26.