Keep off statues, parks: Maya to Akhilesh

Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and BSP supremo Mayawati on Saturday  warned the Samajwadi party (SP) government in the state against making any attempt to raze the statues of the dalit ideologues and the parks named after them.

Speaking at a function on the occasion of birth anniversary of dalit ideologue B R Ambedkar here, Mayawati said there could be a law and order problem in the state and across the country if any such attempt was made by the SP government.

“The state government should not do any thing that may create law and order problem and the SP government may itself land in trouble'', she said. Mayawati said the SP government should learn from the previous BSP regime, which had accorded due respect to the socialist ideologues and did not allow any construction at the parks or memorials where their statues were installed.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had declared that the government would construct hospitals and schools on the vacant land in the sprawling parks and memorials of the dalit ideologues constructed during the BSP regime.

The former BSP regime had constructed scores of parks and memorials after the dalit ideologues across Uttar Pradesh.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said if the land near the statues can be used for building hospitals for women and children, no one will have any objections. But in Delhi, Akhilesh Yadav told reporters that “no statues will be disturbed. It will remain as it is.”

“We never said we will break the statues. I made this clear on the very first day in office,” he said. Earlier, the chief minister had a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The chief minister accused the erstwhile Mayawati government of disregarding environmental concerns while setting up statues and other structures.