By Bhupen Goswami

Guwahati : The government of Assam has taken the decision to purchase Dr Bhupen Hazarika’s Kolkata house in a cabinet meeting held at Janata Bhawan on Monday. Rs 1.75 crore has been sanctioned by Assam government to buy the Tollygunge house in Kolkata. Another Rs 25 lakh has been sanctioned to restore the house. The house, 77 B Golf Club Road, Tollygunge, was Hazarika’s first residence in Kolkata when he arrived in the city in 1952. He began his career as a musician in Kolkata and the house used to be the venue for discussions between many giants of Indian music. Lata Mangeskar, Hemant Kumar, Kishore Kumar and Manna De all used to frequent the house, which Hazarika had first taken on rent from a Bengali in the 1950s. The house is presently owned by Sushil Kumar Dangi and a team of the state government led by Cultural Affairs Minister Naba Kumar Doley and Hrishikesh Goswami, Media Advisor of Sarbananda Sonowal had signed a deal with Dangi to obtain the ownership of the house and turn it into a memorial. The decision of building Lachit-Silarai bridges at several places of the state was also taken at the meeting and a whooping Rs 9.43 crore has been sanctioned for the same.