By Sakhi Rangadevi Devi Dasi
The birthplace of Srila Prabhupada at Tollygunge, Kolkata, is now under the ownership of ISKCON. After toiling for several decades, the devotees of ISKCON Kolkata have achieved something commendable to make as an offering to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada on his 125th birth anniversary: August 31st, 2021. A live-streamed festival will take place on that day and all are encouraged to watch and participate.
On the 11th of August, Vice President of ISKCON Kolkata, Radharaman Das, declared that Srila Prabhupada’s birthplace is now acquired.
There had been 17 tenants occupying the land. After several years of effort, they have been able to get a loan of one crore Rupees (135,000 USD) to pay the previous tenants to become the owners of the land. With the help of devotees and different ISKCON centers in India, who collected about Rs 43.5 lacs Rupees (59,000 USD), alongside the ISKCON Governing Body Commissioner's (GBC) contribution of 60,000 USD to the project, and a bank loan, ISKCON Kolkata was able to facilitate that ISKCON becomes the proprietors of the land and the relocation of the tenants.
In 2011 ISKCON had acquired four very small rooms that were built under the jackfruit tree, due to the contributions of Radhanath Swami. However, the entire 4-acre property has been under “Thika Tenancy” making it complicated to gain ownership. Thika Tenancy is a legal provision in West Bengal in which the government is the owner of the land and all the Thika Tenants pay rent to the Government, and all the “Bharatiyas” or sub-tenants pay rent to the Thika tenant.
The Hon’ble Chief Minister of West Bengal Srimati Mamata Bandyopadhyay had requested to transfer the land to ISKCON's name and requested ISKCON to pay all the sub-tenants and the main tenant and then the Government would hand over the land to ISKCON. That has now been done.
Read more: https://iskconnews.org/srila-pabhupadas-birthplace-land-bought-by-iskcon,7948/
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