Odisha govt to preserve, renovate Bezbaroa’s house

Bhubaneswar: Reiterating its earlier promise, the Odisha government today assured Assam government to preserve and conserve the century-old house of renowned Assamese litterateur Laxminath Bezbaroa at Sambalpur.

“Odisha Government will take up renovation and conservation of Late Laxminath Bezbaroa residence in Sambalpur at its own expense,” CM Naveen Patnaik said.

His announcement came after Assam Cultural Affairs Minister Naba Kumar Doley and Assam CM’s press advisor Hrishikesh Goswami discussed the matter with Patnaik at State secretariat today.

The Assam Minister and his officials yesterday also discussed the issue with Sambalpur district administration after paying a visit to the heritage building in the western Odisha town.

After the discussion, the Collector had assured all support to protect the monument. “We will take all steps to protect the monument. The two buildings, office and residence of the honourable litterateur will be affected during the widening of the approach road and the chowk development. I have instructed the architect designers and superintending engineers to change the orientation of the road so that the buildings can be protected,” Collector Samarth Verma had said yesterday.

The Assam delegates also expressed pleasure after visiting the house of the eminent poet. "We are really overwhelmed and privileged enough to have visited the historical house of Asamese litterateur Lakshminath Bezbaroa. It's like a temple. We are pleased with the hospitality of local people. We will soon submit a report to our CM after discussing the matter with his Odisha counterparts tomorrow," Doley had said.

On October 27, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal had written to his Odisha counterpart and requested him to protect and preserve the structure, which is "intrinsically associated with the emotions of the people of Assam".

Sonowal had also directed his minister and officials to visit Sambalpur with the plea to protect the building.

Earlier, the Sambalpur district administration had planned to demolish the two dilapidated buildings, which had come in the way of an approach road that would link the ongoing second bridge over the Mahanadi river. Work on almost all alignments of the bridge is over. To get the road job done, the district administration had issued notice to demolish the buildings. Following the notice, large-scale protests were held in Assam.