Cuttack June 27 : After years of delay, Odisha government has finally demarcated and notified the boundary of 0.775 acre Sisupalgarh ruins area, which has been recorded in the name of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), as directed by the Orissa High Court in a 14-year-old PIL.
The more than 2,000-year-old remains of a fortified city at Sisupalgarh on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar were excavated by ASI in 1948. Subsequently, an area of 562.681 acre was declared as ancient monument on November 13, 1950. As most of the protected areas was encroached over the years, only 0.775 acre in Sisupalgarh was recorded in the name of ASI as per the settlement Record of Rights (ROR) in 1982.
In March 2007, Indian National Trust for Arts and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), Odisha Chapter had filed the PIL seeking a specific direction to the government to protect the monuments at Sisupalgarh. On December 13, 2020, the petitioner had filed a fresh petition seeking direction to take speedy steps within a stipulated time to complete the boundary wall to protect 0.775 acre which was recorded in favour of ASI.
On May 17, 2021, the court had expressed dismay that the matter was pending since 2007 and orders issued by it from time to time had not yet been complied with by the government. It had given the last chance to submit a report on the present status of the site along with photographs on June 22. Accordingly, State Archaeology’s Superintendent Aswini Satpathy filed an affidavit supported by photographs on Tuesday.The two-judge bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice SK Panigrahi took note of the affidavit and fixed August 5 as next date while giving petitioner counsel GP Mohanty time till then to file a reply to it.
In the affidavit, Satpathy said the survey marks at the strategic point around the boundary of 0.775 acre were made out and accordingly pillar posting was done. There was no encroachment by any private person so far as the 0.775 acre is concerned, he added.