Orissa High Court rejects govt affidavit on Sisupalgarh, directs to file report

By Express News Service
CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Monday expressed displeasure over the State authorities’s failure to submit a passable report on the current standing of the traditional monuments at Sisupalgarh on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar.

Sisupalgarh was excavated in 1947 by eminent archaeologist BB Lal and is taken into account to be the primary occasion of a deliberate settlement after Mohenjodaro-Harappa. According to newest stories, solely 0.775 acre of your complete 562.681 acre of the fortified settlement’s protected land is below Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) management.

On April 19, the Court was not in a position to proceed with the 14-year-old PIL for preservation of protected space of Sisupalgarh because the State authorities did not submit a report on the current standing of the traditional monuments. The failure of the federal government, the second time in 50 days, pressured the Court to adjourn listening to on the matter to May 17.

When the PIL got here up on Monday, the federal government filed an affidavit together with some pictures. But the Court was not happy because the affidavit failed to present a standing report as directed on April 19. The Court anticipated the federal government to file a report on the current standing of the protected space of the ruins of Sisupalgarh together with pictures of the positioning and steps taken for defense of the monuments. 

Expressing displeasure over the affidavit, the division bench of Justice BR Sarangi and Justice KR Mohapatra needed to adjourn listening to once more to June 21, giving the federal government time until then to file a passable report.Indian National Trust for Arts and Cultural Heritage had filed the PIL in 2007 in search of a particular route to the authorities involved to take acceptable steps to guard the monuments in Sisupalgarh space with out permitting any unauthorised constructions or encroachments. 

Meanwhile, in a associated growth, ASI Bhubaneswar Circle has urged the Collector of Khurda to take rapid steps to cease building of street by unlawful removing of the fortification wall of Sisupalgarh with the intention to protect and save the monuments of nationwide significance.

In a letter to the collector on April 30, ASI Bhubaneswar Circle Superintending Archaeologist in-charge PK Dikhit stated the fortification wall of the southern aspect of Sisupalgarh has been eliminated by utilizing machines and the land is being levelled for straightforward entry to the plots.