Red-faced PMO seeks explanation on gold hunt

The excavation only unearthed iron nails, a miniature stone lion, terracotta beads, a few glass bangles and remains of burnt brick walls

A sadhu dreams of hidden gold in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao district. Three ministers vie for their golden moment. An internationally-covered treasure hunt turns into a fiasco, embarrassing the government and the country.

The gold dig, based on sadhu Shobhan Sarkar’s dream of 10,000 tonnes of the yellow metal hidden under Raja Rao Ram Baksh Singh’s fort in Daundiya Kheda village, has created bad blood within various ministries of the Union government.

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) is out to fix responsibility for the washout following instructions from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

 In the last week of October, it sought detailed explanations from the Ministry of Culture (MoC), headed by Chandresh Kumari Katoch, and the Ministry of Mines (MoM), headed by Dinsha J Patel. The gold dream began, according to the Mining Ministry, when Minister of State for Agriculture Charandas Mahant requested the Geological Survey of India (GSI), under MoM, to conduct a field study in Unnao.

The minister, who had once sworn to sweep the office floor if Sonia Gandhi asked him to, cited the sadhu’s dream as proof. Following this, the MoM directed GSI to conduct field research. The week-long excavation, which began under full media glare in the remote village on October 18, unearthed only iron nails, a miniature stone lion, terracotta beads, a few glass bangles and remains of burnt brick walls.

“The PM is very embarrassed by the drama. His office was skeptical from the very beginning and now wants to fix it,” said a source within the government.

The Archaeological Survey of Indian (ASI), under the MoC, conducted the excavation following instructions from the GSI. The GSI headquarters in Kolkata had given instructions following the MoM’s green signal.

Confirming that the PMO has sought an explanation, an MoC official told Express the ministry has presented its case to the PMO. “Our minister had gone in person to present the ministry’s case. She has given clarifications on all issues related to the excavation,” said the official.

The MoC has submitted that it “received the preliminary investigations report of GSI from the MoM on October 8”,  which mentioned that “a prominent non-magnetic anomalous zone occurring at 5-20 metre depth indicative of possible non-conducting, metallic contents and/or some alloys, etc” exist at the site.

The GSI report also suggested “excavation for further interest at the specified site”. According to the source, Katoch has also apprised the PM of the alleged tampering of the GSI report.

“If such a thing happened with the GSI report, then it is a criminal offence, which needs to be brought to book and our minister was very particular about this,” said the official.

He said the MoC has been maintaining from the very beginning that the excavation was done after the GSI’s report and not because of a sadhu’s dream.

“The ASI decided to excavate on the basis of the report and now we are unnecessarily being held responsible for the whole mess,” said the official. But the MoM, on its part, has maintained that none of its reports mentioned the presence of gold in Unnao.

“All that the GSI report mentioned was the presence of conductive material. If the ASI decided to go on a gold hunt, it is their mistake,” remarked a ministry official.

The report was prepared by the geophysics division of GSI’s Lucknow centre from where it was sent to the GSI headquarters in Kolkata in the first week of October.

From there, it was forwarded to the MoM in the second week of October.

Patel will also meet the PM soon to present his ministry’s case. The MoM official ruled out any possibility of tampering with the report.

“Neither the preliminary report nor the GPRS-equipped report, which was done later, mentioned gold. Then where does the issue of tampering arise?” he asked.

According to him, the preliminary report submitted by the Lucknow circle did not even suggested excavation. It is, however, learnt that there are discrepancies between the report forwarded by the regional GSI office and the one that reached the MoC. The MoM has ordered an internal inquiry following the PMO query.Mines secretary R H Khwaja, however, did not respond to emails or phone calls regarding this.

“It is an internal matter not to be revealed to the press,” said an official at the secretary’s office.

The MoM, in its argument, has in detail explained the involvement of Mahant, who had written to the ASI and GSI to conduct a survey of the site.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com