[Watch] ‘Late-Night GPRS At Puri Temple Corridor Raises Eyebrows’: Why Can’t It Be Done During The Day, Asks Aparajita

Puri/Bhubaneswar: Coming out in support of BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra, who on Sunday accused the Odisha government of carrying out Ground-Penetrating Radar Survey (GPRS) for the Puri Heritage Corridor Project “secretly at night”, party MP Aparajita Sarangi asked what was the BJD government afraid of and why can’t it carry out the survey during the day.

“Damage has already been done. The state government is trying to cover up now,” the BJP’s Bhubaneswar MP said.

“The state’s 4.5 crore Odias know the state government has been at fault and is trying to cover up its mistakes. If the government is not afraid, why isn’t it carrying out the survey during the day time? Nobody is against beautification,” Aparajita said.

Senior Odisha Congress leader Narasingha Mishra also hit out at the BJD government, saying that those who want to hide something, work in the dark. “What is the harm in working during the day? Why is the Assembly House Committee on the project not working in full public glare,” he asked.

“I request Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to personally intervene in the matter. Since no excavation work can be done at the protected monument site without ASI’s permission, it seems the government has done something amiss,” Mishra said.

Earlier in the day, Patra questioned the “late-night GPRS” around the 12th-century temple.

Questioning the “late-night” activities around the Jagannath Temple, the BJP leader alleged that the GRPS was being conducted now on the sly. “The area was dug up using JCB machines late at night without conducting a GPRS and now, again, the survey is being undertaken away from public glare at night,” he alleged.

Patra further accused Puri MP Pinaki Mishra of lying about GPRS having been conducted before digging was undertaken despite the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) affidavit stating just the opposite. “The Odisha government and Pinaki Mishra are trying to fool the people of the state. The Puri MP needs to explain to the public,” he added.

Three days ago, after a broken lion sculpture was found in the debris where the Emar Mutt was located, Patra had a war of words with Mishra, whom he accused of “misleading” people over GPRS. Mishra had tweeted that GPRS of the heritage corridor had been done and the report will be submitted to the Orissa High Court as an affidavit.

“Documents will show GPRS was duly done and therefore allegations about digging without doing GPRS are baseless. HC affidavit will clarify all these aspects. All that’s needed is a little more patience and a little less malice,” Mishra tweeted.

Refuting Patra’s charges, BJD spokesperson Sulata Deo accused him of obstructing the ongoing work by making false and misleading statements.

Deo asserted that GPRS was conducted earlier and submitted along with the detailed project report to the National Monument Authority (NMA). “The NMA had permitted the reception centre at a lower height. It was shifted to the regulated zone since the government wanted to make it taller,” she said.

The ASI, in its affidavit to the Orissa High Court, had submitted that no GPRS was conducted to ascertain the archaeological and historical importance lying buried in the subsoil of 75m radius (construction zone) of the centrally-protected monument before the commencement of the project. No heritage impact assessment studies were also conducted, it said.

Some people were seen carrying out inspections from Kakudikhai temple in the southeast corner of the Srimandir to the Emar Mutt and other nearby spots with some machines late on Saturday. They identified themselves as officials of Geocarte Radar Technology Private Limited, conducting GPRS on behalf of IIT-Gandhinagar.

Also read: https://odishabytes.com/sambit-patra-targets-odisha-govt-again-over-late-night-gprs-around-puri-jagannath-temple/

Also read: https://odishabytes.com/stop-playing-politics-with-srimandir-project-bjd-hits-out-at-sambit-patra-reiterates-gprs-done-claim/