The high court has asked the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) to mention the steps that can be taken to remove unauthorised structures, if any, from the Jorasanko Thakurbari, the family home of Rabindranath Tagore.
A PIL was filed in the high court last year alleging that two rooms at the Thakurbari had been converted for use by the West Bengal Trinamul Shiksha Bandhu Samiti, a Trinamul-backed union of non-teaching employees of Rabindra Bharati University(RBU).
The university is partially housed at the Thakurbari, a Grade I heritage building where no external change is allowed.
The bench of Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj had on January 30 directed the KMC to file an affidavit detailing “the steps which can be taken by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation for removal of unauthorised construction, if any, indicated in the said report”.
The KMC was asked to file the affidavit within 10 days.
The two rooms are located below the celebrated Dakshiner Baranda (southern balcony), said a KMC official.
The report referred to in the order was prepared jointly by the heritage conservation committee of the KMC, police and the Rabindra Bharati authorities.
Members of the heritage conservation committee inspected the two rooms in December following an order by the high court that said “it is the responsibility of the Heritage ConservationCommittee/concerned department of the Corporation in coordination with the police and the University Authorities to ensure that the heritage building is conserved and restored”.
A member of the heritage conservation committee said, “A door had been installed that was not in tune with the rest of the structure. The paint applied to the rooms was in violation of heritage rules. We found heritage rules had been violated.”
A KMC official said marble slabs had been laid over the floor in the rooms raising its height. “This is incompatible with the rest of the structure,” he said.