Fund crisis halts work on Tagore museum
Amanur Aman, Kushtia
Work on the proposed "Kushtia Municipality Tagore Museum" at the Tagore Lodge that stopped due to fund crisis soon after it started about a year and a half ago is yet to resume.Sources said steps to preserve the lodge situated in the district town, built by the family of Rabindranath Tagore, were initiated by Kushtia municipality about four years ago. The municipality took up a Tk 5 lakh-project on January 26, 2002 to reconstruct the lodge as a museum that would also house a library. It started the work following a pledge to preserve the house made by the then state minister for youth and cultural affairs of the Awami League government Obaidul Kader in 2001. The municipal authorities then purchased the house from one Salima Khatun, who inherited it from late Abdul Gafur. Gafur had bought it when put on auction many years ago. Since then it was being used as personal property. Visitors no longer gathered there and no function was held there. The once Tagore family house was thus drifting into oblivion. The authorities then floated a tender to rebuild the lodge and work started on November 9, 2003 only to stop soon due to fund crisis. "The municipality got no financial assistance from the government to implement the project," a senior official said. The Tagore family had built the house on a piece of land it owned and named it Tagore Lodge. The house is situated by the road to the great poet's Kuthibari at Selidah. Rabindranath's elder brothers Bolu Tagore and Surendranath Tagore decided o run their business with its office at the lodge. The poet was also involved in the business and named the business venture "Tagore and Company". The use of Tagore Lodge as the office of Tagore and Company dates back to 1895. The company traded in raw goods including jute. Later, the company's office was sifted to Kolkata. But Rabindranath gradually lost interest in business and handed over the company to an employee, Jogneshwar Roy, who renamed it Jogneshwar and Engineering Workshop. Then Renwick and Company, established in 1891 by one William Renwick, and Jogneshwar started a joint venture renaming the company Renwick and Jogneshwar Company. The company still exists. Local people have demanded immediate resumption of implementation of the project.
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