'House of Raja Subodh Mullick in shambles, may collapse anyday'

KOLKATA: The ancestral house of Raja Subodh Mullick at Wellington Square may collapse anyday apprehends senior officials of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC).

The house, built between 1883-84, had played an important role in India's freedom movement. KMC had declared it as a heritage building in 1998.

The house is now owned by Calcutta University. The KMC authorities have written several letters to the Registrar to maintain the building but nothing has been done so far.

The civic officials said the university authorities cite a court case that had prevented it from carrying out repairs of the building.

Aurobindo Ghose, a teacher of Baroda College came to the city and stayed at the house at 12, Wellington Square as a guest in 1906-08.

At this house the national Council of Education was set up and Ghose became the first principal of the Bengal National College.

Rabindranath Tagore used to come to this house to discuss with Ghose about the education policy.

Revolutionaries like Bipin Chandra Pal, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, CR Das, Ganesh Sakharam Deuskar were frequent visitors to this house. Subodh Mullick gave Rs 1 lakh to set up the Bengal National College.

KMC officials said the house needs immediate repair. It has not been repaired for decades.

Motor repair shops have come up on the courtyard. There was a massive garden which has been encroached. The KMC engineers felt that if any portion of the house collapses it might lead to loss of lives to the people of adjacent houses.

Some years ago a portion of a house which is situated next to Mullick's house collapsed and to clear the debris, traffic movement along Creek Row had to be suspended for over a month.

The civic officials felt that a thorough restoration of the house was required. Restoration experts in the city maintained that as the building is a part of the city's history and associated with the freedom movement, it should be repaired and restored properly.

It may be mentioned that Independence Day Museum is coming up at the Alipore Central Correctional Home, a similar museum needs to be set up here to celebrate the country's 75 years of Independence and 150th birth anniversary of

Sri Aurobindo.