Despite long-standing demands for freeing the ancestral residence of legendary actor Suchitra Sen from the occupation of Jamaat men, the government is yet to recover it.
Suchitra Sen was born on April 6, 1931 at her maternal grandfather’s residence at Vangabari village of Belkuchi upazila under Greater Pabna. She passed her childhood at her father’s residence at Gopalpur village in Pabna town.
Unfortunately, the ancestral residence of Suchitra Sen in the village of Gopalpur in Pabna has been occupied by the Imam Gazzali Institute, a Jamaat-backed institution, over decades although the people of the district have been demanding measures to free the historic house from the grabber’s occupation.
The conscious people of the district criticised the authority’s sheer negligence to free the house although the people have been demanding removal of the occupation over the last few years.
Suchitra Sen, originally called Rama Dasgupta, started her academic career at ‘Mahakali Pathshala’ of Pabna town. Later, she was enrolled at Pabna Girls’ School which later turned into Pabna Government Girls High School. Suchitra had studied there till class IX.
Locals and elderly persons of the district said Suchitra’s father Karunamoy Dasgupta had left the country (Bangladesh) with his whole family just few months before the partition in 1947.
“Suchitra Sen is the pride for Pabna. Her ancestral residence is also an historical establishment to us. But we are unfortunate that her ancestral residence is occupied. But the government is yet to restore the historic house from Jamaat’s occupation till her death,” said Md Saidul Haque Chunnu, convener of Suchitra Sen Memory Preservation Committee.
It is the demand of the people of the district to make a museum here, he said, adding that the occupiers in shield of law are continuing the occupation for lack of administrative steps.
Deputy Commissioner of Pabna Kazi Ashrf Uddin said Pabna district administration had served a notice in 2009 to leave the occupation. The occupiers then filed the case against the order. But the case is yet to be resolved.
“The cultural activists of Pabna demand to establish an archive at Suchitra’s ancestral house. But the house is still occupied. We have to take oath today (Friday) that will make the house free from the Jamaat clutches and establish an archive here.” Said Mostafizur Rahman Russel, secretary of Pabna Drama circle.