The 33-acre Dalit Prerna Sthal or the Ambedkar Park in Noida, the pet project of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, will be inaugurated on Friday. Mayawati spent a staggering Rs 650 crores to put up the park.
Preparations are on for the grand ceremony that takes place on Friday evening. Mayawati will arrive by a helicopter.
The park has 24 pink sandstone elephants, the electoral symbol of BSP, 12 life-size statues of Ambedkar, Kanshi Ram and the UP Chief Minister herself!
The estimated cost of each statue is over Rs 6 crore and each elephant statue Rs 70 lakh of public money. In fact Mayawati spent Rs 2500 crores on five such major parks across UP. But this memorial to Ambedkar has had a chequered history.
In September 2009, a Supreme Court committee recommended putting a halt on the constructions as the project did not have an environment clearance.
In December 2010, the Supreme Court gave a green signal to Ambedkar Park saying the park is not on forestland.
Environmentalists had alleged the project led to ravaging of Noida's green belt and the loss of 6000 trees. And to make matters worse the concrete park came up right next to Okhla Bird Sanctuary that caused the activists to cry foul.
Despite its troubled past, finishing touches are being given to the park before its grand inauguration.
And then there are those who argue that a poor state like Uttar Pradesh should not be spending public money on such opulent parks.
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