Decks cleared for opening of Netaji museum in Puri

  • | Tuesday | 8th January, 2019

After Janakinath passed away in 1938, the land and the building were recorded in the name of Netaji and other members of his family. An open-air pandal had also been constructed with the aim of holding cultural programmes for the entertainment of visitors. Later, the lease was updated several times.In 1997, the family’s descendants demanded a permanent patta for the bungalow. The matter was pending for years till February 2013, when the then RDC Aravind Padhee rejected the plea and directed the Puri district administration to acquire the land and the building. This sparked off a legal dispute between the Puri collector’s office and the heirs of the Bose family before the court of revenue divisional commissioner (central).Later, Netaji’s family members urged the RDC to exclude the name of the leader from the owners’ list.

By: Lalmohan PatnaikCUTTACK: Decks have been cleared for the Odisha government to throw open to public the museum dedicated to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose at the freedom fighter’s ancestral house in the beach town of Puri with the Orissa high court vacating a status quo order issued by it on the property five years ago.The building was in a dilapidated condition when it was taken over by the Puri district administration in 2013. The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (Intach), which was entrusted with the restoration work, has repaired it by using traditional techniques in lime plaster to retain the original architecture of the house.As part of the museum project, old furniture in the house had been conserved and the entire premise landscaped. An open-air pandal had also been constructed with the aim of holding cultural programmes for the entertainment of visitors. Efforts had also been made to display rare pictures, documents, journals and magazines related to Netaji at the museum to attract tourists.But the state government had sought the permission of the high court to open it for public as the HC had issued a status quo order on the property.“There is no legal hurdle now for the state government to open the museum as a division bench of Justices Sanju Panda and S K Sahoo vacated the status quo order on January 3,” additional government advocate (AGA) Kishore Kumar Mishra told TOI on Monday.According to official records, the house situated at Mati Mandap Sahi in the temple town was built by Netaji’s father Janakinath Bose on 0.434 acres of land allotted on lease to him for residential purpose in 1916 by the then Puri collector.The lease was to be renewed every 30 years. After Janakinath passed away in 1938, the land and the building were recorded in the name of Netaji and other members of his family. Later, the lease was updated several times.In 1997, the family’s descendants demanded a permanent patta for the bungalow. This sparked off a legal dispute between the Puri collector’s office and the heirs of the Bose family before the court of revenue divisional commissioner (central).Later, Netaji’s family members urged the RDC to exclude the name of the leader from the owners’ list. The matter was pending for years till February 2013, when the then RDC Aravind Padhee rejected the plea and directed the Puri district administration to acquire the land and the building. Accordingly, the district administration took control of the land on March 3, 2013.Subsequently, Netaji’s grandnephew Supriyo Bose (the grandson of Netaji’s eldest brother Satish) and other descendants of Netaji’s family challenged in the high court the takeover of the property by the state government and managed to get status quo order in the same year.The case had then languished till the state government sought permission for opening the museum in August 2017. Acting on it, the high court called for records.The state government informed the HC that it had already spent around Rs 4 crore in transforming the centuries-old house into a museum dedicated to Netaji.“While vacating the status quo order, the division bench further quashed the order of the RDC that had directed the Puri district administration to acquire the land and the building and order of collector taking control of the land on the grounds of jurisdiction,” Mishra said.“The bench directed both parties — the state government and the petitioners (descendants of Netaji’s family) — to work out a settlement in accordance with law,” the AGA said.

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