MP: Saptarishi idols damaged at Mahakal corridor due to high wind speeds

“There are a total of 160 idols installed at the Mahakal Lok corridor, out of them six idols of ‘Saptarishis’ (seven sages) that were around 10 feet tall fell down around 4 pm as strong winds swept through the area,” Ujjain Collector Kumar Purshottam said.

After that, the corridor was immediately closed. But when it was reopened at 7 pm, a large number of visitors again thronged the place, he said.

The damaged idols were not located inside the Mahakaleshwar temple, but in the Mahakal Lok corridor developed around it, he said, adding they will be restored.

State Congress chief and former Chief Minister Kamal Nath has constituted his own seven member inquiry comittee, which includes five sitting MLAs from the state.

In a tweet said, “When the then Congress government…took a pledge to make a grand construction of the Mahakal temple complex in Ujjain, it did not imagine that the subsequent government would commit serious irregularities in the construction of Mahakal Lok. Today, the way the deity idols fell on the ground due to the storm in the Mahakal Lok complex, that scene is a very pathetic scene for any religious person. I demand from the Chief Minister that the idols which have fallen in Mahakal Lok, new idols should be installed immediately and those who make shoddy constructions should be punished after investigation.”

Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh tweeted, “There is no such scheme in which BJP has not done corruption. Shoddy construction was done in Ujjain’s Mahakumbh and now the Mahalok corridor made of Rs 750 crore inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra

MP Home Minister Narrotam Mishra said, “Congress is now only left at Twitter and TV…they never help out, did you see Kamal Nath go to even one place during the Covid era? Were Kamal Nath and Digvijay Singh seen distributing ration, medicines ? The loss caused was due to a natural calamity and will be compensated by the concerned agency.”

The total cost of the Mahakal Lok project is Rs 856 crore with the first phase costing Rs 351 crore.

Right from it’s inception both the Congress and BJP has been feuding over taking credit for the project.

While CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan credited his government for conceptualising the project in 2017 at a cost of Rs 95 crore, Kamal Nath said it was in August 2019 that his government drew the sketch of the Mahakal Temple and allocated Rs 300 crore for it.

Just a week after it was inaugurated by the PM, Ujjain’s Congress MLA Mahesh Parmar approached the Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta alleging financial irregularities in the construction following which notices were issued to 15 officials.

The corridor, said to be one of the longest in the country, traverses the old Rudrasagar lake which has been revived as part of the redevelopment project around the Mahakaleshwar temple, one of the 12 ‘jyotirlingas’ in the country.

Measuring more than 900 metres in length, the corridor has around 108 aesthetically ornate pillars made of intricately-carved sandstones that depict the Anand Tandav Swaroop (a form of dance of Lord Shiva), 200 statues and murals of Lord Shiva and goddess Shakti.