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PM Modi's intervention sought to declare Dr Bhabha bungalow as national monument

DAE's Prashant Worlikar and three others recently met BJP leaders Smriti Irani and Vinay Sahasrabuddhe to apprise them of the need for acquiring the bungalow so that they could communicate the same to the prime minister.

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Dr Homi Bhabha’s bungalow Meherangir in Malabar Hill
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Prime minister Narendra Modi is being approached online and through personal representations made by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) representatives, seeking his intervention to declare the auctioned Meherangir, Dr Homi Bhabha's bungalow in Malabar Hill, as a national monument and convert it into a memorial of the late nuclear scientist.

DAE's Prashant Worlikar and three others recently met BJP leaders Smriti Irani and Vinay Sahasrabuddhe to apprise them of the need for acquiring the bungalow so that they could communicate the same to the prime minister.

Worlikar's team has also requested the public to send messages on the prime minister's website. "Till now, around 1,000 messages have been sent online and we are expecting many more Dr Bhabha lovers will write to the prime minister," Worlikar said.

Previously also the representatives had sent around 5,000 postcards from across the country to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), highlighting the auction and the need for preservation of the bungalow.

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had recently written to Modi, urging him to declare Meherangir as a national monument as the structure is over 100 years' old. Meherangir, the sea-facing three-storey bungalow, was partly owned by Bhabha's brother, who later willed it to the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA).

In June last year, the bungalow was auctioned by the NCPA for Rs372 crore. The DAE employees, however, demanded that the property be declared as a heritage site. In April last, the DAE had written a letter to the state government, requesting it to give the property heritage status. In response to this letter, then chief minister Pritviraj Chavan had said that he would look into the matter.

On behalf of the DAE union, two employees had approached the Bombay High Court after the auction. Now, the DAE employees are feeling helpless as the deadline given by the high court to take a call on this issue expired last week.

"We have got a survey conducted by the BMC this year. The survey indicates that the bungalow is over 100 years' old, which meets the criteria to declare it as a protected monument. Thus there is now no hurdle to acquiring that bungalow and making it a suitable memorial of Dr Bhaba," said Worlikar.

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