RTI ‘exposes’ Maya’s memorial splurge

* Over Rs 300 crore spent on construction of statues and murals in Lucknow in the first two years of the BSP government

* Over Rs 150 crore spent on boundary walls of different memorials and statues in Lucknow

* Rs 5.64 crore spent on construct of a 530-m boundary wall at Kanshiram Smarak (i.e. one metre of boundary wall costing over 1 lakh)

To challenge the claim made by CM Mayawati in her recent “maharally” that less than one per cent of state’s planned expenditure has been spent on memorials,the Congress has dug out the figures above from the state’s UP Rajkiya Nirman Nigam Ltd using a Right to Information query.

“To this date,just vague figures were given on the expenditure done by Mayawati government on memorials but through RTI,we have tried to expose her claim that less than 1 per cent has been spent on memorials and statues. The expenditure is clearly one-third of the planned expenditure,” said Congress leader Akhilesh Pratap Singh who filed the RTI last year and recently got the reply. “This is the information available from just one department. We demand an immediate White Paper by the Mayawati government,” Singh added. The Congress alleged such huge expenditure has been made without any detailed project report or no-objection certificates from the concerned ministries. “It is a crime committed by the state government. We will continue to expose the government in the coming days,” Singh said.

Shailendra Singh,chairman,UPCC’s RTI cell,said,“We will organise a dharna on April 19 at Jantar Mantar.”

According to the Congress,Rs 22 crore was allocated for construction work at the CM’s residence in July 2007.