Assam, Odisha in tussle over demolition of Bezbaroa house

GUWAHATI: Assam and Odisha are locked in a tussle over the demolition of a century-old house belonging to the doyen of Assamese literature, Lakshminath Bezbaroa, located in Sambalpur town of the eastern state.

On Friday, Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal called up Naveen Patnaik, his Odisha counterpart, after the news of an order to dismantle the uninhabited and dilapidated house to make way for a bridge over the Mahanadi and development of rotary junction created a storm in his home state.

Sonowal has asked cultural affairs minister Naba Kumar Doley and his press adviser Hrishikesh Goswami to rush to Sambalpur to meet the district magistrate and people with a plea to save the house, which the Assam government plans to renovate and preserve as a heritage building. The two emissaries of the CM will also carry a letter from him addressed to Patnaik, requesting him to preserve the house.

"The CM has vowed to preserve the heritage property at any cost and called up Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik to seek his intervention for taking a proactive steps for preservation of the house which is intrinsically associated with the emotions of the people of Assam. Patnaik has assured to do the needful," said Goswami.

On the other hand, the Odisha government has already acquired land at Nelson Mandela Chowk on the banks of the Mahanadi on which Bezbaroa's house stands. Convener of Bezbaroa Smruti Committee, Deepak Panda, said, "According to the original plan, two houses of the poet - the one where Bezbaroa stayed and the other one used by him as his office - will be demolished."