Preservation Plea for Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury's Ancestral Home

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has issued a plea for intervention from both the Indian and Bangladeshi governments to halt the demolition of the ancestral home of Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury in Mymensingh, Bangladesh. The house, which has significant cultural ties to Bengal's history, is reportedly being dismantled as part of redevelopment efforts.

Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury, a prominent 19th-century literary figure and the patriarch of a famed cultural legacy, had originally constructed the house over a century ago. The site, once home to the Mymensingh Shishu Academy, has languished in neglect, leading to its current dilapidated state, with no maintenance for the past decade.

The Daily Star, a Bangladeshi newspaper, reports that the property will be replaced with a semi-concrete building to revive the Shishu Academy's activities. This has raised an outcry from Banerjee and cultural advocates who wish to see the landmark preserved as part of the region's rich heritage.