Indus Valley Times

‘You cannot fool all the people all the time’

By Kishore Mohapatra

Bhubaneswar May 18: Eminent historian and researcher Anil Dhir has called out the latest tweet by Puri Lok Sabha member Pinaki Mishra on GPRS survey of the Jagannath Mandir Parikrama project as a ‘gaffe’ sand claimed that the lawmaker’s content in the micro-blogging site was ‘another blatant attempt of misinformation and disinformation.”

He (Pinaki) has tweeted:  “Documents will show GPRS was duly done and therefore allegations about digging without doing GPRS are baseless. High Court affidavit will clarify all these aspects. All that’s needed is a little more patience and a little less malice.”  He has also attached the front two pages of a purported report titled “Report on Underground Utility Detection by GPR Technology   for the Shree Mandira Parikrama Project”.

Stating that MP was suffering from chronic foot in the mouth disease, Dhir has said the lawmaker had not even ascertained that the Utility Detection GPRS is only for detection of underground gas, water and power lines.

“This survey is done to locate these utilities to prevent damage where proposed excavation is undertaken. The Ground penetrating Radar Survey (GPRS) is essential for locating non-conductive utilities, un-locatable subsurface features, non-metallic pipes, and concrete storm and sewer systems, underground storage tanks etc. Abandoned lines, electric cables, fibre optic cables, septic tanks etc. are also detected by this method,” said the researcher.  

The Utility Detection GPRS is in no way a survey of buried artefacts or archaeological materials. The report is only for specific materials as above.  The MP is once again indulging in lies and subterfuge by suggesting that composite GPRS has been conducted for archaeological materials. In fact, in the affidavit submitted to the High Court, the ASI has specifically mentioned that during  the Joint Inspection, the executing agencies, both OPCC and Tata Project and stated that no GPRS had been done