New Delhi:
The Supreme Court has asked the Uttar Pradesh government to remove workers from the memorial site within six hours.
"You have time till 7 this evening to clear out all workers," is the apex court's stern deadline to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati to stop all work at her memorials that are being constructed.
Taking serious note of the violation of its order, the apex court said "nobody should be allowed to enter these sites except the guards".
The Supreme Court called it a serious matter and said if the facts stated in newspapers and television channels are correct, then the UP government is trying to play with fire; it is playing hide and seek.
The UP government had told the court that only maintenance work is being carried out at the sites, but the apex court said, "We fear that under the pretext of maintenance, the court order is brazenly violated."
The case will be taken up on September 18.
But there was also some relief for Mayawati as the court of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) refused to stay the construction work at her Noida park.
The apex court has issued show cause notice to S C Mishra, General Secretary of BSP and counsel for the UP government. "Nobody other than security guards should enter sites," the court said.
The Supreme Court also lauded television and newspaper reports. Whileissuing a deadline to the Mayawati government, the judge said, "Wedon't go by news reports but repeated telecast by television channel(NDTV) and news reports in Hindu and TOI made us to take suo motonotice."
NDTV had reported that construction at the site was on despite the court order.