Formal start to Premchand memorial and research centre

VARANASI: The city is all set to host the three-day Munshi Premchand Lamhi Mahotsava-2011 from Friday. While the festival will feature a series of cultural activities to mark the birth anniversary of the great Hindi novelist, it will also witness the formal beginning of the work of Premchand Smarak and Premchand Shodh Evam Adhyayan Sansthan (Munshi Premchand memorial and research centre) at his birthplace in Lamhi village.
"The agreement between the cultural department and the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) is likely to be inked in presence of cultural minister Subhash Pandey and BHU vice-chancellor DP Singh on Friday," informed Lav Kush Dwivedi, the regional cultural officer and nodal officer of the festival. "With this development, the piece of land meant for the construction of memorial and research centre would be transferred to the BHU to begin the work," Dwivedi told TOI on Thursday.
It may be mentioned here that the Hindi department of BHU has been given the responsibility to handle the project for which a fund of Rs 2 crore have already been released by the Central government a couple of years ago. The project could not be started so far due to the unavailability of land. The project was proposed on the occasion of the 125th birth anniversary of Munshi Premchand on July 31, 2005. The then Union minister for information and broadcasting and culture S Jaipal Reddy had also laid the foundation stone of the memorial and research centre in Lamhi village on the occasion. The foundation laying ceremony was also attended by the then UP chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav.
"A piece of 0.249-hectare land has been acquired in Lamhi for the development of memorial and research centre in the name of Munshi Premchand," said Dwivedi and added most probably the land would be transferred to BHU on Friday. On the other hand the BHU is also ready with its project to start the work after the land transfer. According to project co-ordinator Vijay Bahadur Singh of Hindi department of BHU, the work of memorial will start with the construction of research centre along with library and administrative building. The centre will undertake research projects on the works of Munshi Premchand and other related literary activities.
Dwivedi said before the formal inauguration of the festival, the cultural minister would go to Lamhi village to pay respect to the author by garlanding the bust on Friday. It is expected that the exchange of papers between the cultural department and BHU will take place on the occasion. Later, the festival will be inaugurated formally in the evening at the Cultural Complex, Chowkaghat.