Lucknow, September 9
Despite taking a categorical undertaking before the Supreme Court that the state government would not resort to further construction at the memorial sites, work remained in progress at all four major memorial sites in the city.
The only visible difference was that the mammoth iron gates of these memorials were firmly shut to the public and the media and the heavy police presence ensured that media and curious onlookers did not hang around.
At the most ambitious project site -- Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar Samajid Parivartan Stall in Gomti Nagar -- workers could be seen chiselling stones and working on the twin stupas inside the complex. The grinding sound of the stone cutting could be heard from outside the massive boundary walls.
Similarly, work at the country’s biggest dome coming up at Kanshi
Ram Memorial was also in full swing.
Diagonally across the road, the site of Buddha Vihar Shanti Upvan was full of activity with workers going on with their business as usual.
Work was also continuing under heavy police bandobast at Kanshi Ram Atithi Grih coming up on 13 Mall Avenue.
No official of the state government was ready to confirm or deny if work was still continuing on these sites. However, security personnel at the sites confirmed that senior officials of the UP Rajkiya Nirman Nigam had been flitting in and out of the memorials since yesterday. The Nigam is in charge of the constructions.
Even before work on the memorials was completed, the Mayawati government had hurriedly inaugurated them and thrown them open to public on June 25 this year.
The sudden move was to pre-empt a likely stay order by the Supreme Court to continue work on the statues and memorials built with public money. The hearing was scheduled for July 13.
Incidentally, on August 24 the apex court bench, headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan, in another PIL challenging the memorials had asked the petitioner advocate Ravikant to respond to the UP government’s stand that there was no violation of law in the installation of the statues, as it has been approved by the state assembly.
