Anand Bhawan, the ancestral house of Biju Patnaik here, is all set to be dedicated to the people as a ‘Museum and learning Centre’ on Saturday. President Ram Nath Kovind will dedicate the double-storied 10-room building located at Tulasipur to be used as a place of learning equipped with a five-room museum in the ground floor and a two-room library in the first floor.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his elder brother Prem Patnaik donated the building, constructed by their grandfather laxminarayan Patnaik in the year 1900, to the State Government in January 2015 requesting the Culture Department to convert the property spread over on an area of 38,000 square feet into a place of learning centre.
laxminarayan Patnaik, who started his public career as a munsif and later, went on to become Dewan of Paralakhemundi had constructed this house almost 120 years ago, where Biju Babu was born on March 5, 1916. The house is a witness to the legendary leader’s growth from a toddler to youth making forays into politics from a pilot and industrialist.
Biju Babu continued to stay here until he built his new house ‘Naveen Niwas’ at Bhubaneswar. But Anand Bhawan was the witness to many historic moments of India’s freedom struggle and it has contributed significantly to Odisha’s social and political movements. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik way back in 2006 had mooted the idea of converting this historic place into a museum.
All the five rooms in the ground floor of the building have been renovated, each showcasing artifacts, personal belongings and photographs of Biju Patnaik, which includes his furniture, clothes, a gramophone, his books like wars of Ancient India and Gandhi’s Concept of Civil Disobedience. While the first room displays his family photos, the second room has rare pictures of his political career.
Being a first generation industrialist, Biju had started a chain of industrial houses under the Kalinga Industries Group. One of the rooms of the museum displays pictures and write-ups about his entrepreneurial ventures. Similarly, two rooms in the first floor are converted into a library and learning center. The State Government has renovated the building by spending over Rs 1 crore, sources said.