GUWAHATI, Sept 23 - A delegation of the All Assam Students� Union (AASU) today visited the historic Sambalpur residence of Sahityarathi Lakshminath Bezbaroa in Odisha and interacted with local residents and organisations as part of the student body�s effort to reclaim the residence and develop it as a heritage spot for Assam.
The AASU said that the residence where the doyen of Assamese litterateur penned many of his timeless works and his office were in a dilapidated state due to neglect over the decades.
�We demand that the Assam Government should immediately take up the matter of preserving the Sahityarathi�s residence with the Odisha Government. The buildings located on a sprawling campus of two-and-a-half acres now under the possession of a person with the surname, Poddar, are in a state of disrepair. It is heartbreaking that a site associated with Assam�s literary and national heritage should be languishing for want of attention,� AASU vice president Pulak Chetia, who led the six-member delegation, said.
The AASU said that the entire campus should be acquired by the Assam Government for developing it as a memorial to the great litterateur.
�We had a discussion with the local residents of Sambalpur and the Lakshminath Bezbaroa Smritiraksha Sangsad. The Sangsad has assured us of full cooperation in preserving the memory of Bezbaroa and developing it as a heritage site. The memorial will also help facilitate enhanced literary and cultural exchanges between the people of Assam and Odisha,� Chetia said.
