By IANS,
Lucknow: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court Thursday passed an interim order directing the Uttar Pradesh government not to carry out any demolition at the site of a jail or cut any trees on its premises, on a public suit fearing that Chief Minister Mayawati’s government planned to demolish the building to expand a memorial coming up next door.
While hearing a PIL filed by a local lawyer, the order was passed by the two-judge Bench of Justice Pradeep Kant and Justice S.N. Zaidi.
The PIL stated that government had planned to demolish the Model Jail and Women’s Jail so that the area can be used to expand Chief Minister Mayawati’s multi-crore project-Kanshiram Smarak Sthal.
It was also stated in the PIL that the government was cutting trees at the site of the Model Jail and Women’s Jail.
In its order, the high court directed the state government to maintain status-quo till the case comes up for next hearing May 18.
According to officials, the Kanshiram Smarak Sthal is coming up in about 60 acres of the area, near the Model and Women’s Jail, along the Kanpur road.
The Kanshiram Smarak Sthal is being developed at an estimated cost of about Rs.253 crore. It has Mayawati’s 18-feet-high bronze statue along with that of Dalit icon Kanshiram.