Indian parks created in vast plot to swindle state funds

INDIA has been rocked in recent years by corruption scandals involving everything from mining rights to the sale of the mobile phone spectrum.

But now authorities in the country’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, have announced they are investigating whether a billion-dollar project to build five parks filled with monuments were in fact an elaborate plot to swindle state funds.

The new state government said yesterday it is probing the destination of public money it says were misappropriated by former chief minister Mayawati’s administration as it built the statues in parks honouring the contribution of dalits, the lowest Hindu caste, to the nation, including the father of the constitution, BR Ambedkar.

“We said during election time that a large-scale scam has been committed,” the new chief minister, Akhilesh Yadav, said yesterday, adding that several people, including former ministers, are likely to be investigated.

He suggested hundreds of millions of dollars were wasted in planting trees that were later uprooted, building and tearing down structures repeatedly, and inflating contract prices. It was not immediately clear how much of the project’s estimated $1.8 billion budget may have been mis-spent.

Mayawati’s party has not responded to requests for comment.

The park project of Mayawati, herself a dalit, has been a magnet for criticism in one of India’s poorest states, where tens of millions suffer from malnutrition and many die from diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea.

Though she spent more on parks than on medical supplies, Mayawati – who uses only one name – has insisted the sprawling pavilions brought a long-overdue sense of pride to the dalit community.

The five concrete-paved parks are filled with statues of famous dalits, formerly called “untouchables”, who rose to power and prominence. They include Mayawati and the late founder of her dalit-based party.

Dozens of larger-than-life statues of elephants, her party’s symbol, also adorn the parks. Police are investigating how Mayawati’s administration paid about $15 million for 130 stone elephant statues – more than $115,000 each – while the artisans who made them were promised only one-tenth that price.

“The actual cost should have been much less,” said Ram Bahadur Yadav, an official in Uttar Pradesh’s new government.

One Agra-based artisan told police he had carved 11 statues for $9,800 each, but more than a year after delivering them he still has only been paid a quarter of that, police deputy inspector general Ashutosh Pandey said.

Akhilesh Yadav also said that money was misappropriated when buildings and walls were constructed, destroyed and then rebuilt repeatedly in the parks.

Palm and date trees were also planted, only to later be uprooted and thrown away. And many contract prices were inflated, he said.

On 6 March this year, Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party lost its majority in the Uttar Pradesh state assembly to the Samajwadi Party.

US diplomatic cables published in 2011 by WikiLeaks detailing the opinions of American diplomats said that Mayawati ran all governmental decisions through her small group of advisors and that she employed food tasters for security purposes.

The cables also alleged that Mayawati sent a private jet to Mumbai to retrieve some sandals.

Mayawati responded to the allegations by saying that the statements they presented were baseless.