In the early hours of Tuesday morning, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court stayed the Uttar Pradesh government’s decision to raze the Ambedkar Sports complex till July 19.
The sports complex, once home to cricketers such as R P Singh and Suresh Raina is being sacrificed to Chief Minister Mayawati’s dream project, the Kanshi Ram Memorial.
According to the government, the complex has to go because intelligence agencies perceive a threat to the adjoining Ambedkar Memorial.
Along with the complex, infrastructure worth Rs 20 crores, including an Olympic size pool, a state of the art gymnasium, four tennis courts, volleyball and handball courts and eight practice wickets for cricket training will be destroyed. To compensate, the government has announced an international standard multi-sports complex some eight kilometres from the city.
The opposition is not convinced and has decried the government for its whimsical attitude. The BJP accused the government of manipulating files citing security threat for different reasons. “This is a black day for sports in the state. The BSP government is misusing power,” BJP Leader Hukum Singh announced in the House. 
On Monday midnight, bulldozers had arrived at the sports complex. Alarmed sportspersons then gathered to raise anti-Mayawati slogans while two counsels for the petitioners rushed to a senior High Court judge’s home.
In addition to staying the demolition, the two-judge bench also directed the state government not to vacate the homes of those who live within the complex.
Incidentally it was Mayawati ,who had inaugurated the complex during her earlier stint as CM in 1994 and named it Dr Ambedkar Sports Stadium.