Move to recover Pramatha Chy's ancestral home

The local administration has at last taken initiative to recover the ancestral homestead of Pramatha Chowdhury in Chatmohar upazila under the district, following the locals and conscious people's demand for keeping alive the memory of the great literary figure.

Born on August 7 in 1868 at Haripur village in Chatmohar upazila, Pramatha Chowdhury along with his family members migrated to India before the India-Pakistan partition in 1947, leaving their 'Chowdhury estate' including a palatial house and a temple at the village.

The abandoned palace on seven-bigha land gradually ruined while a dilapidated temple on the land still carries the memory of the great Bangla prose writer.

“Backed by influential people, illegal occupiers have built dozens of rooms on the premises of the ancestral home of Pramatha Chowdhury during the last couple of years,” said Professor Iqbal Kabir Ronju, convener of Pramatha Chowdhury Smrity Sangrakkhan Parishad.

"Most of the property of the Chowdhury estate was occupied earlier. Lately the land grabbers started occupying the land around the abandoned house, much to the grievance of local conscious people. On several occasions, we held demonstrations demanding government steps to keep the memory of the leading writer at his ancestral house," he added.

"The local administration in a recent survey has identified 16 illegal occupiers on the ancestral house of Pramatha Chowdhury. We have issued notices to all the occupiers, ordering them to remove their structures within seven days,” Md Mizanur Rahman, assistant commissioner (Land) of Chatmohar upazila.

"The illegal occupiers will be evicted through mobile court if they do not remove their structures. Pabna Deputy Commissioner Rekha Rani Balo during her visit to the ancestral house of Pramatha Chowdhury last week assured locals of setting up a library there in memory of the great writer," he said.

“We want to see the full implementation of the administrative initiative. Pramatha Chowdhury is a glorious son of the soil. We are so unfortunate that no step was taken in last 70 years to preserve his ancestral house,” said Rakibur Rahman Tukun, president of Chatmohar Press Club.