Weddings, cultural events in Maya parks

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Lucknow: The parks and memorials built by former UP chief minister Mayawati will soon turn into venues for marriages and cultural events.
The Akhilesh Yadav government has finally decided to let out the open spaces for marriages and cultural events and the buildings will be used for housing government offices.
The sprawling Ramabai Ambedkar ground will be let out for marriages, cultural programmes and fairs while the parking area of this ground would have a new inter-state bus terminus.
The state government has already allotted part of the space in Ambedkar memorial to an office of women power line and there is a proposal to give part of the administrative building to National Investigation Agency (NIA). The government now plans to shift some more offices in the empty spaces in the memorials buildings.
“The maintenance of these memorials requires large sums of money. By putting them to good use, we hope to get money that will be used in their upkeep,” said a senior official in the CM secretariat.According to a report of the Lucknow Development Authority, Rs 5,919 crore was spent on construction of these structures at nine locations and there has been no return because ticket sales are negligible.
“We have to shell out large sums of money to maintain these memorials and pay the staff deployed there. If we start renting out the spaces and shifting some government offices, we can make these memorials selfsufficient in financial terms,” said a Lucknow Development Authority official. It may be recalled that during the campaign for the assembly elections in 2012, the Samajwadi Party had announced that the parks and memorials would be used for public utility and hospitals and schools would be opened in these memorials. However, it was later felt that the move would acquire political overtones.