After spending huge amounts of public money on erecting her statues, UP Chief Minister Mayawati now wants a special security force to guard these.

The state government introduced the ‘UP State Special Zone Security Forces Bill 2010’ on Thursday in the assembly with a view to raise such a force. The bill will come up for discussion today.

According to officials, the new force will be headed by the director general of police. In the first phase, one battalion will be raised at a cost of Rs 67 crore and it would entail a recurring cost of Rs 14 crore every year.

The statement of reasons and objective of the bill says: “The memorials and the parks are important places. For ensuring their security, it is necessary to declare those areas as special zones and adequate arrangements should be made for their security.”

The special zone has been defined as “an area declared by the state government where statues of social, environmental and aesthetic importance are situated”.

Mayawati has raised 10 monuments to herself, which also have statues of her mentor Kanshi Ram. Nine of them are located in Lucknow and one in Noida.

The opposition parties have raised a serious objection to Mayawati's move, saying that she should instead be focussing on improving the law and order situation of the state. The state has one of the worst records in crime and human rights violations.