A PhD scholar from IIT-Delhi after about three weeks He died while digging a hole collecting soil samples in LothalBJP MLA from the region, Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, performed a ‘shanti puja’ at the site of the Harappan-era port city.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Education Minister of Gujarat Chudasa, party MLA from Dhola Constituency, Kiritsinh Davi, participated in the prayer along with residents of 10 rural villages of Dhola taluk. May Surabhi Verma’s soul rest in peace for about two hours.
A tragic incident happened when the daughter who came for the assignment could not return. Being a religious and spiritual personality, he wanted peace sacrifice for the eternal peace of the departed soul. Full ahuti in the Havan was given by everyone present, the driver, helpers and villagers,” Chudasama told The Indian Express.
Chudasama said that a similar pooja was organized at the accident site in the state about three decades ago. “In 1997, 11 people from Amreli died when a bus carrying passengers drowned in the river in Lolia village…I organized a peace sacrifice at that place,” said Chudasama.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Verma’s father Ram Khelwan, who lives in Uttar Pradesh’s Sitapur, said, “The family appreciates the initiative and purpose of doing the pooja for my daughter.”
26-year-old Verma, who was doing her PhD at IIT Delhi’s Center for Atmospheric Sciences, died when a pit collapsed while she was working near the Lothal archaeological remains. His associate professor Yama Dixit was pulled from the ditch by first responders.
On Monday, the crater, containing marine mud, was 3 meters wide – double the size recorded after the incident on November 27.
Sarpanch Sahdevsingh Jala of Nani Boru village, who participated in the puja, said that the local people are always available to anyone who comes there for research. “Locals are well aware of soil conditions and types. We are always available to people but in this case, we did not know that researchers were working on the site. So how could we help them?” said Jala, who was among the first responders to the incident.
MLA Davi said that the puja will give a positive message to the locals. “The people of the area around the site and Lothal are not very educated and are superstitious. Let this untimely death not hinder the development of the world’s best maritime museum that is being built in Lothal. So, this pooja was done to send positive energy and peace to the daughter who was drawn to the site by her destiny,” Davi told The Indian Express.
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