You are playing with fire, SC tells Maya

Telling the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh that "you are playing with fire",  the Supreme Court today directed stoppage of all further construction activities at the Kanshi Ram Memorial Sthal in Lucknow, saying its orders cannot be violated.

"We generally don't go by newspaper reports.  We ignore them. But it is a very serious matter. You are playing with fire.  Our orders cannot be violated," a bench comprising Justices B N Agrawal and Aftab Alam said.

Taking suo motu notice of media reports that work on the Rs.2,600-crore memorial for Kanshi Ram, B R Ambedkar and others in Lucknow was continuing despite the undertaking given on September 8 that construction work will be stopped, the court directed the state government forthwith stoppage of all further construction, repair and maintenance activities at the memorials site.

"We feel that under the pretext of maintenance work, the undertaking is clearly violated," the bench said. 

 A demand was made by counsel for petitioners Abhishek Singhvi that monument protection force of the CRPF should be deployed because the state government cannot be expected to be impartial, but the court said "we shall see later".

The bench directed the state government to ensure that barring the watch and ward staff, no no person shall be present in and around the sites after 7pm today.