Bezbarua house to convert into a literary museum

The hope of re-construction of the ‘Bezbarua house’ located in Sambalpur becomes brighter after the visit of a 6-member team led by the president of Assam Sahitya Sabha on Monday afternoon. Visiting the dilapidated house, the members have promised to construct a building in the memory of the famous poet of Assam Laxminath Bezbarua  who was residing in that house for more than 20 years.

The president of the Assam Sahitya Sabha Rang  Bang Tarang informed that Sambalpur becomes a sacred place for people of Assam because famous poet Bezbarua created most of his literary work during his stay in Sambalpur. He also appreciated the behavior and custom of the people of Sambalpur as it more or less similar to the behavior and custom of Assam.  “We found a similarity in the behavior and attitude of the people of Assam with the people of Orissa. We feel proud for Sambalpur because the town has given shelter to our great poet Laxminath Bezbarua  who created all his literary works from this place”, Rang Bong Tarang, the president of Assam Sahitya Sabha said.

A meeting was organized by the district administration in the collector office to felicitate the visiting guests. Senior citizens and literary personalities of Sambalpur have taken part in the deliberation who opined to begin a new avenue of cultural exchange between Assam and Orissa.

It may be mentioned here that Laxminath Bezbarua, profounder of modern Assamese literature was residing in a house  located near Mandela chowck for more than 20 years during  1917 to 1938 in connection with his timber business.  During his stay in Sambalpur he created many of his literary works. After his death the house was purchased by a local trader. But the house was constructed on a government leased land, so it comes to legal litigation as there was dispute between the administration and the purchaser. Finally the purchaser moved to high court.  Since the case is still pending in the court of law no body takes care its maintenance part. 

 “We are taking step to resolve the case as soon as possible. Since the place has historical importance, we will recommend the government to declare it as a protected place. We have also assured to the visiting guests to cooperate them in all manner for the reconstruction of the building in the memory of the great poet”, collector (Sambalpur) HK Dash said. 

In the deliberation eminent citizens including Abhaya Padhi, Bhagwat Nanda, Arjun Ranjan Panda, Deepak Panda, Bamapada Tripathy, Sriballav Panigrahi were prominent among others who present and discussed with the visiting team. The DIPRO (Sambalpur) Surya Mishra coordinated the programme.