Non-government and local groups, however, are putting in their best efforts to preserve the historic house where the veteran leader and former Prime Minister Tanka Prasad Acharya was born. [break]
The Tanka Prasad Acharya Smiriti Pratisthan and locals have taken initiatives to convert the building into a museum and preserve important documents, books, photographs, clothes, old artifacts and other items Acharya used in his lifetime so that the future generations can learn about the crusader´s lifestyle.
Acharya, who set in motion the first organized movement against the Rana oligarchy, was born in the building in Parasi Bazar where his father worked as Badahakim [a senior government officer] a hundred years ago.
Baijanath Chaudhary, chairman of Tanka Prasad Acharya Memorial Museum, said they turned the building into a museum to immortalize the person who was, in a way, the first person to sow the seeds of democracy in the country. "We have also a plan to establish a library at the same building."
Acharya, who became prime minister for 18 months starting January 1956, died in April 1992.
When the Rana rulers executed four freedom fighters -- Gangalal Shrestha, Dashrath Chand, Shukraraj Shastri, Dharmabhakta Mathema-- in 1997 B.S., Acharya was sentenced to death for conspiring to overthrow the Rana regime. Though the penalty was later commuted to life imprisonment, the autocrats seized the properties belonging to Acharya.
"Though we succeeded to reclaim the land where the building is situated four years ago from the state, the government has not offered any support to establish the museum," Govinda Dulal, executive director of the pratisthan, told Republica.
He said the requests made to the governments headed by Girija Prasad Koirala, Sher Bahadur Deuba, Lokendra Bahadur Chand, Madhav Kumar Nepal and others went in vain. Renowned personalities like Sahana Pradhan, Bharatmohan Adhikari, Damannath Dhungana, Nilambar Acharya and Bhesh Bahadur Thapa, among others, are members of the Pratisthan [trust].
Disappointed at government indifference, locals and members of the trust are now in the mood to scout for other alternatives.
"We have demanded just Rs. 2.8 million from the state for a good cause. If the government continues to turn deaf ears toward our demand, we may seek other alternatives to arrange necessary resources," Chaudhary said.
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