HC stays unveiling of BSP MLA's father statue

ALLAHABAD: The Allahabad High Court on Friday stayed the unveiling of the statue of a BSP MLA's father in Karchana, near Allahabad. The order was passed by a specially nominated bench constituted by the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court during the Diwali vacation on a public interest litigation (PIL) petition.The statue of Ram Swarup Pandey, the father of Karchana BSP Anand Kumar Pandey alias collector Pandey, was to be unveiled on October 30 by Vidhan Sabha Speaker Sukhdeo Rajbhar in presence of three cabinet ministers Lalji Verma, Rakesh Dhar Tripathi and Nand Gopal Gupta alias Nandi. However, a PIL filed by a social worker, Ramesh Chandra Pandey, sought mandamus from the court to restrain the MLA, through the agency of district administration from undertaking the installation of the statue. The counsel for the petitioner pointed out to the bench that the statue was going to be installed at Meja Triangular Crossing and if it was permitted then public would have a bare minimum space to cross over the road. P 5 They informed the bench that total width of the road on which the statue was being installed was 5.5 metre and the passage which blocked for the said purpose was 1.5 metre. The space left for traffic movement, therefore, would be 2 meter on each side, through which no heavy vehicle could pass by any stretch of imagination, the counsel said.Passing this order, a division bench comprising Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice Krishna Murari also directed to maintain the status quo at the spot as of today (October 28). After passing the interim order, the judges directed to put up this PIL for hearing before an appropriate bench on November 9.