Ex-CM Nijalingappa's museum has to wait, plans ruined

BENGALURU: Plans to convert former chief minister late S Nijalingappa’s house in Chitradurga into a museum have fallen through, despite preparations for months. Though supporters and admirers of Nijalingappa had been demanding that the house be converted into a museum, the family had not agreed, saying the house is all that they have by way of inheritance.

After much convincing by former chief minister BS Yediyurappa and Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, the family finally agreed. But the family wanted to sell the house only to the government, and the district administration had been planning to finalise the purchase. Nijgalingapp, one of Karnataka’s much-admired chief ministers, started out as a freedom fighter, served as AICC president and was also, for some time, a critic of the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru within Congress.  

While politicians of today accumulate wealth running into hundreds of crores, Nijalingappa left behind only the house in Chitradurga for his family members.The house, according to the will, belongs to Nijalingappa’s grandson S Vinay, who is based in the United States. Before arriving in India on a three-week vacation in June, he had informed the authorities that the formalities have to be completed before he returns on June 30.

Not surprisingly, the officials slept over the matter. On June 29, Vinay and his father and Nijalingappa’s son Kiran Shankar, who incidentally is also the chief architect of Vikas Soudha, went to the sub-registrar’s office to execute the sale.But the sub-registrar maintained that some legal formalities had not been completed and the entire transaction fell through and the sale deed was not completed.

Vinay has now returned to the US and the conversion of the house into a museum will have to wait for another future date when Vinay arrives in India next, said a frustrated MLC Mohan Kondajji, who has been running around in circles trying to wake up the apathetic administration.