In an unprecedented incident, the historic Uttarayan complex of Visva Bharati, housing museum and several heritage items, remained closed for two hours without notice amidst reports about a section of employees going on strike.
As visitors and research scholars were surprised after finding all the gates of Uttarayan Complex, housing the Rabindra Bhavan associated with the memory of the Nobel Laureate, closed for over two hours in the morning, the Visva Bharati authorities were apparently in the dark about the development.
Stating he had no intimation about any strike by the employees, the Deputy Registrar (administration) said “(after coming to know about the incident) at 12 pm, I asked the special officer of Rabindra Bhawan to look into the matter and I myself went there at around 12.30 pm but the gates were opened by the employees by that time.”
Stating that they had heard about some employees of Rabindra Bhavan striking work, an official of Karmi Sabha, the employees association of Visva Bharati said “we don’t support such action at Rabindra Bhavan.”
It was unclear how the gates remained closed for two hours.