Burdwan, Jan. 27: A faux mud-house, built to the chief minister's taste and fitted luxuriously within, was the one high point of Mati Utsav that concluded on Monday in Burdwan.
An official said the two-storey building, called "my house" by Mamata Banerjee, would not cost less than Rs 35 lakh. Another official who did not wish to be named said Rs 1 crore was spent on the house.
Mati Utsav, which started on January 19, did not yield a rich crop. Farmers did not come in droves to the fair ground at the Kalna Agriculture Farm. The venue, called Mati Tirtha, had around 25 stalls on agriculture as well as food. Clay models depicted various government projects such as the Anganwadi scheme.
But the festival has left a large thing behind. It is the two-storey imitation " matir bari" (mud-house) built over 3 cottahs. Called Farmer House, it is "meant" for the chief minister. The house is, however, a concrete structure.
Customised to her taste, it has become the centrepiece of the 25 acres of the fair ground and a minor tourist attraction.
Mamata had asked to build the house. During the inauguration of Mati Utsav on January 19, she announced that she would stay in the house whenever she visits the place. "This is my house. I will come and stay here. I love the soil. I want to live in your midst as a daughter of the soil. That is why I got a house built for myself here."
Farmer House is made of cement and painted outside to look like a mud-house. Straw covers the verandah and corrugated sheets the roof, but the inside of the house is unlike other mud-houses.
The "cottage" has a hall on the ground floor. The first floor has two rooms - a master bedroom and a "waiting" room. All rooms have provisions for ACs, though not fitted yet. The building has been provided an electricity connection already and has four bathrooms.
Fitting rural surroundings have been created, not without a touch of aesthetics. A tulsi mandir adorns the entrance. Fifty-two betel nut trees and five coconut trees surround the house. The floor at the entrance is decorated with alpana of footprints of the goddess Lakshmi, traditional Bengali decoration for houses. A birdhouse has been set up on the side of the staircase. Flower plants and vegetable patches with tomato, chilli and brinjal plants add to the beautification.
Protected by security personnel, the house does not allow access to visitors, yet people who visited Mati Tirtha had queued up for a glimpse of the building.
The house has been built by the agriculture marketing board but has been designed and decorated to cater to Mamata's tastes, said the project engineer of Mati Utsav, Sanjoy Biswas.
"The cottage has been designed and decorated following the directions of Madam. The interiors have been done up according to her wish, with cushions, cane furniture and a swing. Arrangements have been made for drawing and painting equipment. A large desk has been installed in her room, where she will write poems, stories and other things."
An assistant engineer of the agriculture marketing board, Prithviraj Ghosh, said: "All wooden furniture inside the cottage and the windows and doors have been made of teak wood from Siliguri. According to the chief minister's wish, we have designed the doors and windows based on old-world motifs. The cane swing has been put up in the verandah as she wanted it. Perhaps she will spend her evenings relaxing there."
Although no official accounting has been done, "the expenditure on the cottage will not be less than Rs 35 lakh", Ghosh said.
However, a district official said on condition of anonymity that nearly Rs 1 crore had already been spent on the cottage.
A Burdwan university student from Satgachhia, Mahua Mukherjee, was found taking photographs of the cottage on her cellphone when the fair was on. "I wonder whether Mamata Banerjee will at all stay in this cottage. After the fair, the area will become deserted. So I thought of taking a picture."
