Separate force to guard Mayawati's statues

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has tabled a bill in the state Assembly to raise a separate police force just to protect her statues and memorials.

Even though construction work at Mayawati's dream memorials have come to a grinding halt after a recent Supreme Court order, but her passion for the monuments has not diminished.

After building memorials and statues worth Rs 6,000 crore, the UP Chief Minister now wants to raise a separate police force to protect them.

The UP government has already introduced a bill in the Assembly that proposes a force lead by a DGP rank officer and consists of more than 1,000 personnel.

The force will be initially allocated Rs 53 crore and will have an annual budget of Rs 10 crore rupee.

However, the Opposition is up in the arms

"Basic facilities are missing in the state but Mayawati is crores on memorials. The government cannot protect common man but is trying have a separate force for providing security for statues," says Samajwadi Party leader Ambika Chowdhary.

"We will protest this move. The move to create a separate force will put additional burden on the state," adds Congress leader Promod Tiwari.

Besides statues and memorials of Bahujan Samaj Party icons, the force would also guard the new sprawling bungalow Mayawati has constructed in Lucknow.

During her last term as the chief minister in 2003 Mayawati had tried to raise a similar force by an administrative order.

But her arch rival and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav struck down the order as soon as he came to power.

But if a bill is passed by the state legislature, it cannot be reversed easily.

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