Orissa HC seeks ASI reply on AMASR violations for heritage venture

By Express News Service

CUTTACK: The controversy over constructions undertaken inside the 100 mtr radius of Jagannath temple in violation of AMASR Act beneath Puri Heritage Corridor venture took a authorized activate Friday with the Orissa High Court accepting a PIL on the difficulty and looking for a reply from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) by April 18.

The ASI had final month written to the Odisha authorities warning of potential threats to the structural security of the twelfth century shrine as a result of ongoing development work.The challenge reached the courtroom with Dilip Kumar Baral, a resident of Puri city, submitting a petition looking for its intervention into the development for public facilities that might come up inside 75 mtr radius of the temple. The AMASR Act prohibits any new constructions inside the 100 mtr of the Centrally-protected monument of nationwide significance.

Answering queries from the courtroom, the petitioner counsel Anup Kumar Mohapatra on the premise of media reviews acknowledged that enormous earth-moving machines and excavators are getting used for digging actions near the temple. He sought a keep order on the continued development work.

Advocate General AK Parija, showing on behalf of the State authorities and Shri Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA), acknowledged that the National Monument Authority (NMA) had issued a no objection certificates (NOC) for the work. The constructions included a cloak room, mini cloak room, sevayat room, bogs for males, girls and servitors, shelter pavilion and pavement space, and so forth.

Taking word of it, the two-judge bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice RK Pattanaik requested Assistant Solicitor General of India Prasanna Kumar Parhi, who appeared on behalf of ASI, to take directions on the apprehensions expressed by the petitioner and file an affidavit. The bench posted the matter to April 21 for listening to and directed the ASI to file the affidavit three days previous to it. “It will be open to the ASI to take a joint inspection of the construction activities going on in the Jagannath temple complex area after advance information to the temple authorities,” the bench added.