Damaged historic nilkuthi yet to be repaired
The damaged roof of historic ‘nilkuthi’ (house for indigo business in British era) at Notkhana village, three kilometres from Nilphamari town, is yet to be repaired, 40 days after breaking of the part by labourers engaged by the district police.
Earlier on January 1, The Daily Star ran a report titled “Archaeology dept, police at odds over damage of historic building”.
The government’s archaeology department two years ago declared the 175-year-old building at Notkhana village in Polashbari union of Nilphamari Sadar upazila as a proposed archaeological site and set a signboard to the effect.
But to the surprise of locals, some day labourers sent by district police on December 24 last year started dismantling the roof of nilkuthi.
“As villagers put serious objection to the act, a police team went there and the sub- inspector concerned said that bricks were being collected to make a sales centre of ‘Women Police Welfare Association’ in the district town, as per directive from the authorities,” said Mamtaj Ali Pramanik, chairman of Polashbari union parishad.
“Finally we persuaded police not to break the building but by the time, labourers damaged a portion of the structure’s roof, separating around 250 bricks. Some other bricks broke into pieces,” he added.
Visiting the site on Sunday, this correspondent found that the nilkuthi’s partially damaged roof remained in the same condition while the separated bricks lay on its premises with none to guard it.
“Some bricks have gone missing by this time,” said Hazrat Ali, 65, who runs a makeshift tea stall nearby.
Sanjoy Kumar Roy, the then custodian of Rangpur museum, said, “I requested the additional superintendent of police in Nilphamari to arrange repair of the damaged roof but didn’t get satisfactory response.”
Abul Bashar Mohammad Atiqur Rahman, additional superintendent of police in Nilphamari, said, “The land on which the nilkuthi is situated belongs to us and the department concerned didn’t inform us in writing about declaration of it as a proposed archaeological site. And so, they are responsible for the misunderstanding and there is no scope to repair it from our part.”
On the other hand, Nahid Sultana, regional director of archaeology department in Bogura, said, “Police should repair the nilkuthi with our technical support, keeping its historic impact intact. I wrote to our director general, requesting arrangement as per rule.”
According to ‘Nilphamarir Itihas’ (History of Nilphamari) written by Jahangir Alam Sarker (published by Bangla Academy in July 2018), British traders established the nilkuthi in 1845 as a centre for cultivation and business of indigo during the colonial era.
The traders also used a portion of it as a torture centre to punish the farmers who refused to cultivate indigo for low pay, mentions the book.
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