Naveen gives ancestral home to state museum

Politicians often find themselves in the news for acquiring high value properties. But Odisha Chief Minister and ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president Naveen Patnaik is in the limelight now for donating his ancestral home to the state.

The bungalow, Anand Bhavan, located in Tulsipur area of Cuttack, the erstwhile capital city of Odisha where Patnaik and his late father, the former chief minister Biju Patnaik were born would be turned into a museum and a library. The present value of the single storey building is around Rs 1.62 crore.

“My brother and I have donated our ancestral home to the state government. The house would now be developed into a place of learning— a museum and a library for people in the state”, Patnaik said after inking the official documents to transfer the property.

 His elder brother Prem Patnaik, a businessman based outside the state and his son Arun Patnaik were by the chief minister’s side when the official documentation was done.

The more than 5000 square ft building which stands on half an acre of prime land in Cuttack was built by Biju Patnaik’s father, the late Laxmi Narayan Patnaik, a lawyer and social worker, more than a century ago.

Naveen and his two older siblings — Prem and writer sister Geeta Mehta who is based abroad — had inherited the property after Biju Patnaik’s demise in 1997. However, last year, Geeta had transferred her shares in the property in favour of Naveen.

For last five decades now, the bungalow was in the hands of a caretaker employed by the family as the late Biju Patnaik had shifted base to Bhubaneswar after constructing a house, Naveen Niwas, in the new capital. Naveen Patnaik currently lives in this house.

Biju Patnaik had also constructed a house in posh Aurangzeb Road in New Delhi which still remains in possession of the family.