Bezbaroa house to be a memorial

BHUBANESWAR: The State Government on Tuesday announced that it will renovate the house of eminent Assamese litterateur Lakhminath Bezbaroa at Sambalpur and turn it into a memorial. The announcement was made by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik after a meeting with Assam’s Culture Minister Naba Kumar Doley and media adviser to Assam Chief Minister Hrikesh Goswami at the Secretariat here.
Stating that the people of Odisha feel proud of Bezbaroa, the Chief Minister said the State Government will bear all expenditure for the renovation of the poet’s abandoned house. The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) will execute the renovation work.

The Assamese writer had spent over two decades of his life between 1917 and 1937 in Sambalpur town. Born in 1864, Bezbaroa was a celebrated pioneer of modern Assamese literature.
Minister of State for Tourism and Culture Ashok Chandra Panda, who was present at the meeting, said the Government will initially allocate `50 lakh for the renovation work and provide more funds if required. Doley thanked the Odisha Government for its cooperation.

The Assamese delegation visited the house of Bezbaroa at Nelson Mandela Chowk in Sambalpur on Monday days after Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal wrote to his Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik requesting him not to demolish Bezbaroa’s house.
The delegation also met Sambalpur Collector Samarth Verma and discussed conservation of the properties of Bezbaroa.

There was a plan to demolish two buildings of Bezbaroa, including the house where he resided and the house which he used as an office, to pave way for construction of an approach road to the under construction second bridge over Mahanadi river and development of rotary junction at Nelson Mandela Chowk.