SC double whammy for Maya

Gets Rap For Inquiry Into Police Recruitment Scam & Demolition Drive

The Mayawati government’s initial success run in judiciary met with some reverses on Friday as the Supreme Court questioned its decision to set up a DGP-level inquiry into alleged scam in recruitment of 20,000 constables before sacking all of them.

It also virtually reversed its earlier interim order green lighting the state’s decision to pull down unsafe government buildings in Lucknow and renovating others, mainly for the purpose of expanding Ambedkar park. But the SC’s interim order appears to have come too late as the government, armed with the earlier clearance, has completed most of the demolition work and fresh constructions.

The orders came from different benches. While constable recruitment scam was posted before a bench comprising Justices D K Jain and R M Lodha, the stay on further demolition came from a bench comprising Justices B N Agrawal and G S Singhvi.

The bench of Justices Jain and Lodha was critical of the manner in which the Mayawati government had instituted a DGP-level inquiry committee. ‘‘By what authority was such a committee constituted? Could the DGP do this,’’ were the questions posed by the bench to UP counsel, senior advocate P P Rao and additional advocate general Shail Kumar Dwivedi.

The counsel said additional DGP Shailja Kant Mishra had gone into the alleged irregularities in the recruitment and acting on his report, the government had cancelled the appointments made in violation of rules and regulations.

The UP government had challenged the decision of the Allahabad HC quashing the government’s order appointing the Mishra committee and ordering CBI probe into it. Before the SC, the CBI had expressed inability to take up the probe citing heavy workload and the politics involved in it. Last year, the apex court had stayed another order of the Allahabad HC stalling the Mayawati government’s decision to renovate or demolish dilapidated government bungalows and buildings in Lucknow for expansion of Ambedkar park.

The HC had passed the restraint order on the government on a PIL filed by NGO Gomti Nagar Jan Kalyan Maha Samiti, which alleged that the government’s decision, which followed arbitrary changes to the Lucknow Master Plan, could spell disaster for the city’s greens.

Topping the list of demolitions is 13A Mall Avenue bungalow, which the urban development department had declared unsafe.

The petitioner before the HC had alleged that the state wanted to demolish it as the ruling BSP wanted to convert it into a memorial for party founder Kanshi Ram.
Source:- The Times of India 28 Feb. 09 Delhi P.14