Three heritage buildings in city in shambles

Kolkata: At a time when the Kolkata Municipal Corporation ( KMC) has chalked out a well-knit plan to pull down old dilapidated structures to make room for new ones with proper rehabilitation of tenants, three heritage buildings are posing a serious threat due to lack of maintenance for decades. Accidents may occur any time.

These three buildings are Basu Bati off Baghbazar Street, Old Jorabagan police station and Raja Subodh Mullick's ancestral house which has been donated to Calcutta University.

Basu Bati had played a major role in Bengal's history. It was the ancestral house of Dr Pasupati Basu and Nandalal Basu. Sri Ramakrishna had visited the house in 1883. It was the house, where Swami Vivekananda was given first reception after he returned from the West on February 19, 1897. The famous Rakhi Bandhan function organised to protest against the proposal to partition Bengal was held at the Thakur dalan in 1905. In 1906 an exhibition was held at the house on Khadi to challenge British goods.

The building, which is more than 175 years old, has not been repaired for the past 50 years. A portion of the courtyard was given to the state Sports and Youth Welfare department after the descendants of Basu failed to pay property tax.

There was a proposal to set up a hotel on the premises, which was resisted by some people who had proposed to set up a museum nearly 20 years ago. Since then nothing has happened and senior officials of KMC Building department said due to lack of maintenance any accident can happen any time. The ancestral house of Raja Subodh Mullick which was donated to the Calcutta University is another such building, which has posed a serious threat. Nearly a decade ago a portion of the building had collapsed and it took more than a month to clear the debris.

This house had played a major role in the Swadeshi Movement. The building was building between 1883- 84. Sri Aurobindo who came to the city from Baroda had stayed at the house for some time. Subodh Mullick along with other luminaries had set up national Council for Education. Rabindranath Tagore, CR Das, Balgangadhar Tilak, Sri Aurobindo among others were frequent visitors to the house. The Calcutta University took over the house on August 15, 1990 when Dr Bhaskar Rai Chaudhury was the vice-chancellor.

The old Jorabagan police station used to house the college which was set up by Alexander Duff around 1830. Sir Charles Tegart who was the Commissioner of Police had set up Jorabagan police station at the house and converted a portion of the building into a torture chamber. The revolutionaries who were called "terrorists" had been brought to the building and were tortured during interrogation.

The building has not been repaired for the past five decades and any day any accident can take place.

Senior civic officials said time has come to repair these buildings as they are putting threats to the lives of people staying in adjacent premis