Force fortification for Maya memorials

Now not just Mayawati and her steely resolve stand between court petitions and her spree of monuments.

Now not just Mayawati and her steely resolve stand between court petitions and her spree of monuments. The state government on Thursday took the first step to create a special statutory force just to guard those monuments,involving jawans who will have the power to make arrests without a warrant in case they perceive any danger to the structures.

The UP State Special Zone Security Forces Bill 2010 was introduced in the Assembly by UP Parliamentary Affairs Minister Lalji Verma on Thursday and it is expected to come up for consideration on Friday.

As first reported by The Indian Express,the new force will be headed by the Director General of Police and will protect 10 monuments,of which nine are located in Lucknow and one in Noida. In the first phase,only one battalion will be raised,costing the exchequer Rs 67 crore. However,the recurring expenditure will be Rs 14 crore annually.

The jawans of the proposed force,which will have jurisdiction over entire Uttar Pradesh,will have the power to arrest any person without warrant or without the orders of the magistrate if the person is found to be trying to cause harm to the monuments or creating obstruction to jawans in discharging their duty,or threatens to damage the monument.

The jawans of the force will,without delay,hand over the arrested person to a police officer or take the person to the nearest police station and submit a report on the cause of arrest. The jawans will also have the power to frisk any person.

Interestingly,the members of the force will be forbidden from writing a book,bringing out any publication,or having any communication with the media without the permission of a competent authority.

According to the aims and objective of the Bill,The memorials and the parks are important places. For ensuring their security,it is necessary to declare those areas as special zones and adequate arrangements should be made for their security. The Bill defines a special zone as an area declared by the state government where statues of social,environmental and aesthetic importance are situated.