R K Narayan memorial: MUDA takes up funds issue with govt

After being in limbo for nearly two years, work on converting celebrated Indian writer late R K Narayan's partly demolished bungalow in Mysore into a public memorial is expected to take off with the urban development department initiating steps to get required funds.
The memorial will house Narayan's collection of works, writings and photographs, a senior Karnataka Urban Development Department official said.
It would also house a reading room and a library, which will help students doing research work in English, the official said.
The design of the vacant bungalow will not be modified from outside, but the inside will see a slight change to display Narayan's works, Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) Commissioner C G Betsurmath said.

He also said the memorial will not be expanded because the government and Narayan's family do not want to lose the nostalgic charm of the building.
After Narayan's death in 2001, the bungalow named after his daughter Hema, has been lying vacant. After her death, it passed to the author's grandchildren Minni and Srinivas, who sold it to a builder, triggering an outcry.

When the builder began demolishing the house, the Mysore civic body took up the matter up with the state government in September 2011.
The previous Law and Urban Development Minister Suresh Kumar quickly got an order passed under the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act to take over the house of the celebrated English novelist.

But instead of making budgetary provisions for the project, the government asked the Mysore City Corporation (MCC) to transfer Rs 2.33 crore to MUDA, which was tasked with restoration work.