Maharashtra govt dispatches letter of intent to buy Ambedkar house in London

The Maharashtra government has started taking steps to acquire the London house where Bharatratna Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar lived.

The Maharashtra government has started taking steps to acquire the London house where Bharatratna Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar lived. On Tuesday, culture minister Vinod Tawde issued a letter of intent to the high commissioner in London, to start the process of buying the property.

Tawde-with-Dass-outside-the-house-in-London

Tawde, who was in London last week, had visited the house and held talks with the Indian high commissioner to initiate the purchase of the house, which the government wants to convert into a museum by April 14 –Ambedkar Jayanti.“The official letter, the first step towards acquisition, was taken yesterday. Now the officials will go ahead with the legal procedures for the transaction,” said Tawde.

Dr Ambedkar lived in this house, located at King Henry’s Road in London, when he studied at the London School of Economics (LSE) in 1921-1922.

The house was put on the market for a minimum price of £3.1 million last year. A private developer had completed initial formalities, but Santosh Dass, president of Federation of Ambedkarite and Buddhist Organisations, UK alerted Maharashtra officials, who then stepped in.