After spending around Rs 4 lakh, an embarrassed Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has decided not to conduct any more ‘trial excavation’, if ‘nothing’ is recovered at the second trench also. It had started digging the second trench last week near Ganges river in Unnao in Uttar Pradesh.
Though the ASI has been publically maintaining that the excavation is being carried out for digging antiquities of Buddhist period, sources say that the agency had started excavating at the another site after it failed to recover the prophesied 1,000 kilo gold as claimed by a seer at the
Raja Rao Ram Bux Singh fort in Unnao. At the second trench too, the ASI is not much hopeful given the recovery so far, said sources.
“They have dug more than one meter so far, but have not found any thing substantial except one more arecanut-shaped bead. After a week, the excavation project being carried out on the basis of the Geographical Survey of India’s (GSI) report will be abandoned,” the sources said.
The much-hyped digging at the first trench below the dilapidated fort did not throw any historical surprises too, forget about the gold.
In the name of archeological remains, after excavating up to five metres in 11 days on the basis of the dream of seer Shobhan Sarkar, it had found just a few pieces of “pottery from the Buddhist period”.
Apart from a broken iron nail, glass bangles, a fragmented miniature stone figure of a lion, and terracotta arecanut-shaped beads (necklace used for animals) have been recovered.
“The ASI has also excavated a burnt brick structure and brick walls besides a few pieces of shapeless pottery,” a senior ASI official said. The GSI in its report had recommended digging at the site claiming that there were possibilities of locating gold, silver or any other alloy.
However, except for a nail piece in the name of metal, nothing substantial has been recovered so far. It was at the behest of Food Processing Minister, Charan Das Mahant who was approached by the seer that the Union Culture Ministry unsuccessfully and hurriedly launched its quest to dig the gold without following any rules.