Mayawati regime razed ASI protected heritage building: CAG

Lucknow, July 3 (IANS) The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its March 2011 report, which was tabled in the Uttar Pradesh assembly Monday, has indicted the Mayawati regime for razing to the ground a heritage building at the Chhatrapati Sahuji Maharaj Medical University (CSJMU) here.

In its report, the CAG has pointed out that the then Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government led by Mayawati not only brought down a heritage building on the campus without informing the Archaelogical Survey of India (ASI) but also did not bother to secure the mandatory 'No Objection Certificate'.

The CAG has further noted that the remains of the building, which was declared a heritage building in 1920 by the ASI, were sold for a paltry Rs.14.63 lakh. In place of the Avadh architectural design building that was constructed in 1914, the Mayawati government constructed an ultra-modern building on the medical university campus at a cost of Rs.28.30 crore.

The CAG report has also mentioned that some of the engineers involved in the process of demolition had requested the Uttar Pradesh government not to rush in to raze the heritage zone building and instead to inform the ASI and take fresh guidelines. But no heed was paid to their pleas. After the building was razed to the ground, the debris was sold March 30, 2008.

-- Indo-Asian News Service

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