Lucknow, Oct 14 (IANS): The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court on Wednesday sought an explanation from the Uttar Pradesh government over a huge amount of public money spent on the construction of the private residence of former state chief minister Mayawati.

While hearing a public interest litigation filed by a lawyer Moti Lal Yadav, the court sought to know from the state government as to why money belonging to the state was spent on the construction of private property of the Bahujan Samaj Party chief.

The petitioner alleged that the former chief minister not only got two bungalows adjacent to her private residence - 13, Mall Avenue -- demolished and acquired to extend her bungalow but that huge sums of money were spent on construction and renovation of the bungalows in 2009.

One of the bungalows acquired for the extension was government property and housed the state cane commissioner's office.

A Right To Information query in 2011 revealed that the treasury department spent a whopping Rs.86 crore for the construction and renovation works of the bungalows of Mayawati.

The state government has been asked to respond within a period of 10 days on the matter.