Agartala, Jan 17 (IANS) Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has promised to convert the ancestral house of legendary music maestro Sachin Dev Burman in Bangladesh into a folk cultural institute-cum-museum, writers and scholars said here Tuesday.

“Hasina assured us that her government would actively consider our proposal of converting the ancestral house of S.D. Burman at Comilla (eastern Bangladesh) into a folk cultural institute-cum-museum,” said Gautam Das, one of the eight-member team of writers, poets, singers and cultural activists which had met her during her visit here last week.

“The house was in a dilapidated condition and some local people had encroached upon it and started a poultry farm in it. But after Sheikh Hasina become prime minister, we, under the banner of Tripura Cultural Co-ordination Committee along with a few intellectuals from Bangladesh, had drawn her attention to it and steps were taken to protect the house.”

Satyabrata Chakraborty, who was also in the delegation, said: “We are hopeful that the Bangladesh prime minister would fulfil our desire as she, in her different speeches here, had mentioned about the cultural affinity between the people on both sides of the border and how Rabindra Nath Tagore and revolutionary poet Kazi Nazrul Islam had influenced and brought us together.”

Accompanied by an over 100-member delegation, including Foreign Minister Dipu Moni, Hasina last week visited Tripura, which had been a base for Bangladeshis fighting for independence during the 1971 India-Pakistan war.

Born in Comilla’s Chortha village, 85 km south of Dhaka (now in Bangladesh), on Oct 1, 1906, Burman was a noted Bollywood music composer and an all-time great Bengali singer and composer.

Born in the royal family of Tripura, he was the youngest son of Nabadwip Chandra Dev Burman, who was a minister during the princely rule.

During British rule, the princely state of Tripura extended up to what was called ‘Chakla Roshanabad’, comprising Comilla, Brahman Baria districts in entirety and parts of Habiganj, Sylhet and Noakhali districts that are now in Bangladesh.

At the end of several hundred years of rule by 184 kings, on Oct 15, 1949, the erstwhile princely state acceded to India as per the merger agreement signed between Kanchan Prabha Devi, the regent maharani, and C. Rajagopalachari, the then governor general.