A group of veteran residents of Santiniketan has written to Visva-Bharati vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty, protesting against the construction of an 8ft-tall boundary wall on the campus that will put out of sight the mud house of Rabindrasangeet exponent and Rabindranath Tagore’s disciple Santidev Ghosh.

In the letter submitted on February 3, they requested the VC to construct a 3ft-tall wall and cover the rest with iron nets so that the house remained visible from the campus.

Sources said Visva-Bharati was constructing a road to separate the campus and the adjacent residential houses. This was being done to secure the campus as a large number of people use roads inside the varsity to commute. The 1.5km-long new road, which will bypass the campus, has been planned to start from the house of Ghosh and merge with the Bolpur-Santiniketan road near Nisha hotel.

Tagore had picked Ghosh as a teacher for Sangeet Bhavan and sent him to several countries, including Sri Lanka and Java, for further education. Ghosh, known as a Rabindrasangeet maestro, was encouraged by Tagore to act and perform in dance dramas. In 1984, Ghosh was awarded Padma Bhusan award. He passed away in 1999 at the age of 89.

“The mud house of Santidev Ghosh is an integral part of Santiniketan Ashram. The construction of the wall has started right in front of Ghosh’s house. According to the proposal, the wall will come in front of houses of other senior teachers and residents of Santiniketan, including artist Suren Kar. So, we have requested the VC to stop it. We want the wall to come up to a height where visibility of the houses are not blocked. The remaining height can be fenced with iron nets,” said Subir Bandopadhyay, a resident of Santiniketan and the son of celebrated artist and author Prabhat Mohan Bandopahdyay.

“Tagore wanted a campus without boundary. There have been protests in the past when walls had been erected. Our plea is to save the character of the campus,” Bandopadhyay added.

Apart from Bandopadhyay, several senior Santiniketan residents, including former Kala Bhavan professor Nanda Dulal Mukherjee and Shanta Bhanu Sen had signed the letter submitted to the VC.

“The wall has become a pain as it divides the ashram and campus. It is not right to erect a wall that blocks the visibility of Santidev Ghosh’s house, which is adjacent to Sangeet Bhavan. We have requested the VC as he is the one who can take the initiative to stop it,” said Sen, who is the cousin of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen.

“The wall is going to make the campus look like a jail. We don’t want it,” said Nandadulal Mukherjee, a retired Kala Bhavan professor.

Visva-Bharati officials, however, said that the process to build the walls had started 11 years ago and it was done for the security of the campus. The construction of the new road became important as outsiders continue to use the existing road adjacent to girls’ hostels and Sangeet Bhavan, a varsity official said.

“Our priority is campus security and that is the reason for constructing the wall. However, it is up to the higher authorities to decide whether they want to change the plan,” said a varsity official.

Anirban Sircar, the officiating public relations officer, however, refused to make any comments in this regard.