Bijay Mohapatra alleged that the ASI took an active interest in the project from the very beginning.
Bijay Mohapatra alleged that the ASI took an active interest in the project from the very beginning.
As the ruling Biju Janata Dal and the opposition BJP engage in a war of words over the Puri Heritage Corridor project, senior saffron party leader Bijay Mohapatra targeted the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and alleged that the central agency was responsible for the mess.
Demanding a CBI probe into the entire corridor project episode, Mr Mohapatra said on 24 May: “When the state government demolished monasteries and excavated bug pits within 75 meters from a protected monument like the Sri Jagannath temple, the ASI kept silent the whole time.” Had the ASI had done its job properly and raised objections from day one, this dispute Wouldn’t happen, he said.
Mr. Mohapatra alleged that the ASI had taken an active interest in the project from the very beginning.
The senior BJP leader said that the ASI should have constituted a technical or expert panel to probe the project, but it is yet to be formed. He said that the state government could also have formed such a panel in consultation with the ASI, but it was not done again.
Mr Mohapatra alleged that the ASI has “completely failed” in discharging its responsibility and the powers given to it, due to which a major controversy has arisen today. He said that despite being empowered to do so, it did not take any steps to stop or oversee the project.
Further, Mohapatra said that the counsel for the ASI remained silent when the matter was taken up by the Orissa High Court. It was only after the direction of the High Court that the ASI participated in the joint inspection.
He “guilted” the ASI for not conducting the Impact Assessment Survey, Ground Assessment Survey and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) survey at the site before the execution of the work.
“No one should play politics with Jagannath temple in Puri, whether in power or opposition. Now the issue has turned into a political drama,” he said.
However, ASI officials here preferred not to comment on Mohapatra’s allegations.
Meanwhile, the Odisha Bridge Construction Corporation (OBCC), the state agency executing the corridor project, on Tuesday conducted a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) survey, this time during the day after conducting it twice at night.
On May 24, a delegation of various political parties met Puri Govardhan Peeth Shankaracharya Swami Nischalananda Saraswati and sought his intervention and save the temple and its age-old culture and tradition.