NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoS&PI) has approached the Central Public Work Department (CPWD) to take up upkeep work of premises of Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) — an institution of national importance — in states, including its historic campus spreading over 32 acres in Kolkata.
Upon failing to receive a response in the matter from the local office of the agency, the ministry has written a letter to the Director General (DG) of the department. The institute requested the special director general of CPWD Kolkata region in November last year.
In a letter to the CPWD DG sent last month, the ministry has sought his personal attention and directions to the concerned officers to explore possibilities of undertaking maintenance work of ISI buildings in centres in Delhi, Bengaluru, Tezpur and Chennai and its headquarters on Kolkata campus.
Its outlying units are also located in Coimbatore, Giridih, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune and Vadodara.
ISI was founded in 1931 as a learned society in a small room in the Presidency College. It was shifted to its present location at Baranagar, a suburb of Kolkata in the 1950s. The campus comprises two complexes. The main structures are the geology building, library, administration block, two hostels and ‘Amrapali’.
The founder of the institute, Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, purchased a plot of land with a one-storied building in early 1941 at Baranagar and had plans to renovate and extend the house, mainly for residential purposes.
His close friend Rabindranath Tagore named the proposed house Amrapali after a classical Buddhist sanctuary. The renovation was completed in 1942. After shifting to the property, Mahalanobis placed at the disposal of the Indian Statistical Institute a few rooms of Amrapali. Consequently the centre of activities of the Institute moved from the premises of Presidency College to there.