Click to play videoSantiniketan: The Santiniketan landscape in West Bengal is changing fast. Santiniketan's local development authority is building housing complexes on the outskirts of Visva Bharati. But residents of the area and Tagore's descendents are opposing the project.
The eroded terrain of Bolpur, called Khoai, is set to become a dwelling for people who holiday in Tagore's abode of peace. And constructions like these have upset even the descendents of Tagore, who live in Santiniketan.
Says Susanto Tagore, Santiniketan resident and a descendent of Tagore: "Tourists visit Santiniketan to see the creation of our ancestor, Rabindranath. They don't come to see entertainment parks and housing complexes."
Promoted by the Sreeniketan Santiniketan Development Authority (SSDA), which is headed by Lok Sabha Speaker and CPI-M leader Somnath Chatterjee, the proposed housing complex near Prantik targets affluent Bengalis of Kolkata as prospective buyers. But the Santhal adivasis of the locality, who had to part with their land to make way for the complex, complain that SSDA has cheated them.
"Initially, when we protested, SSDA promised a lot of improvement for our village. None of those promises have been kept," says Chhotu Baske from Bolpur village.
Discontent among a section of Visva Bharati inhabitants has reached such proportions that protestors have complained to President APJ Abdul Kalam, seeking his intervention in the matter. Though the local development authority has refused to comment on the allegations leveled against it, it’s clear that the dispute could adversely affect Left votes in this traditional red bastion.
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