Guwahati: Patriotic Peoples’ Front Assam (PPFA), while supporting the public sentiment, urges the authority to revive the historic Nabin Chandra Bordoloi hall cum library (formerly Lord Curzon Hall) on the western bank of Dighalipukhuri for the benefit of booklovers and common people.
The forum pointed out that the century old structure witnessed many historic events in the last century with the presence of most of the Assamese stalwarts and many national heroes like Rabindranath Tagore, PC Roy, Ashutosh Mukherjee, Subhash Chandra Bose, Joyprakash Narayan etc.
“As the library is named after a great Assamese patriot, socio-political leader and writer, Karmavir Nabin Ch Bordoloi, we must pay due respect to the institution. The Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC), which took over the hall in 1969 and decided to restore it, must not ended up revealing its apathy and negligence,” said a PPFA statement.
It also added that the GMC as well as Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority, Assam Tourism Development Corporation and Cotton University (formerly college) had separately proposed the government to shift the library from its present location and hand over the plot to them, as everyone has plans to develop the space according to their needs.
“We oppose any move to shift the public library from the present location and demand to restore & reopen it for the public at the earliest. Because we should not forget that it was an important part of India’s freedom struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi, where Karmavir Bardoloi appealed to the students of Cotton College to join the freedom movement,” added the statement.
The PPFA also proposes for a life size statue of Karmavir at the premises of the library as an honour to the great patriot of Assam. Endorsed by Rupam Barua, Jagadindra Raychoudhury, Ajay Dutta, DN Chakravarty, Jaharal Saha, Kishor Giri, Anindita Choudhry, Ruma Barua, Anup Sarma, Pramod Kalita, Ujjal Saikia, Jahnabi Goswami, Rubee Das, Dhiraj Goswami, Kumud Das, Indranil Kalita, Bikash Kumar Das, Suryaman Chetri, Alok Das, Kumarjit Sarma, Arup Koch, Protim Sarma, Sanjeeb Kalita, Manoj Khandelwal, Debajit Sarma, Kuntala Chakrabarty, Niren Barman, Bikash Halder, Achyut Kumar Haloi etc
