Tag : Heritage

Odisha: The ongoing Puri heritage corridor construction work might have caused damage to the 800-year-old Jagannath temple there and the state government project was being carried out without valid permission from the competent authorities, the Archaeological Survey of India on Monday informed the Orissa high court. Hearing a PIL claiming that construction work for the project has affected the health of the temple, the court had asked the ASI, the custodian of the 12th-century shrine, to undertake a joint inspection of the site with the state government and file a report to the court. Asking the state government to file its reply on the ASI's affidavit, a division bench headed by Chief Justice S Muralidhar posted the matter to be heard again on May 22.”There is every possibility that the construction agency OBCC (Odisha Bridge Construction Company) during the excavation and removal of the earth might have destroyed the archaeological remains of the heritage site,” the ASI affidavit said. The ongoing construction work of the project being carried out by the Odisha government inside the ”prohibited" area of the ancient monument has no valid permission or no objection certificate from the competent authorities, it said.The state had informed the court that correspondences were exchanged between the Odisha government and the National Monuments Authority, which functions under the Union ministry of culture and is responsible for grant of permission for construction-related activity in the ”prohibited and regulated” areas. However, in its 70-page affidavit to the high court, the ASI said that the drawings and structural designs included in the revised detailed project report (DPR) are different from the ones presented to the NMA.The ASI ...