The Supreme Court on Friday fixed March 12 to hear the plea of Uttar Pradesh government for lifting the stay on the work for construction of statues and memorials for Dalit leaders at a park in Noida, which was causing a loss of Rs three lakh everyday.
The matter, which was listed before a special forest bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, could not be reached for hearing due to paucity of time.
When the bench was rising for the day, senior advocate K K Venugopal, appearing for UP government, sought an urgent hearing on the grounds that the authorities were losing Rs three lakh every day and further cost of maintenance was increasing for those structures already constructed.
"All work has been held up. We are losing Rs three lakh everyday," Venugopal said.
The Bench, also comprising Justices S H Kapadia and Aftab Alam, initially wanted to hear the matter on February 19 but senior advocate Jayant Bhushan, appearing for the opposite side, expressed his inavaibility on that date prompting it to fix the hearing for March 12.
The court had on October 9 directed Uttar Pradesh government to stop the work at the site and allowed NOIDA authorities only to continue with other work like planting of trees.
However, later the Centre in its affidavit had said there was no need for environmental clearance for the controversial project. PTI
