The Hindu : `Santiniketan becoming a concrete jungle'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 01, 2004

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National

`Santiniketan becoming a concrete jungle'

By Our Special Correspondent

KOLKATA, JAN. 31. The Magsaysay award winner, Mahasweta Devi, has blamed the Sriniketan Santiniketan Development Authority (SSDA), chaired by the CPI(M) leader, Somnath Chatterjee, for the ``degeneration'' of Rabindranath Tagore's dream project into a concrete jungle.

At a press conference here on Thursday, the renowned Bengali author, a recipient of a French award for outstanding contribution to literature, said the SSDA demolished Tagore's concept of an ashrama by encouraging building activities in and around Santiniketan, the seat of Vishwabharati University founded by Tagore.

``Business tycoons are threatening to ruin the natural beauty of Santiniketan by building urban-style residential complexes, clubs and amusement parks. We will try to stop the ongoing construction boom by appealing to the good senses of the authorities.''

She referred to the ``planned'' filling up of a 300-year-old water body in Khoai in Santiniketan and the conversion of large tracts of agricultural land around it for building purposes. She said two large business houses had been offered large tracts of land around Khoai, one for a residential complex and the other for an amusement park.

``Khoai had a special place in Tagore's mind. It was also a favourite spot for eminent artists such as Nandalal Bose and Benod Behari Mukhopadhyay.''

The author claimed that the local residents were up in arms against this reckless activity to convert a heritage land and university township into a tourist centre. It threatened the very social fabric of a unique educational innovation renowned the world over for its very special character. If houses, hotels and clubs had to be built for tourists, they could be done outside the territorial jurisdiction of Vishwabharati. ``Nowhere in the world are heritage sites destroyed this way. Prime examples are Oxford and Cambridge,'' she said.

Eminent personalities such as K.G. Subramanyam and Jogen Chowdhury had filed a public interest litigation petition in the Kolkata High Court. A second PIL petition had been filed by the Howrah Ganatantrik Nagarik Samity against the activities of SSDA.

Mahasweta Devi urged the President, the Prime Minister and the Acharya of Vishwabharati to take steps to protect and preserve Tagore's unique creation.

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