THOOTHUKUDI: The roof over the verandah of the first floor of Mahakavi Bharathiyar’s house in Ettayapuram, where he was born, crashed on Tuesday evening. As the caretaker in-charge of the house and the watchman were outside the house when the incident took place, no casualties were reported.
The 200-year-old two-storey building, which was constructed adopting Kattakuthu roofing (also known as Madras terrace roofing), consists of a verandah and an inner room, comprising a photo gallery featuring Bharathiyar’s photographs and his works.
The houses, which was taken over by the Tamil Nadu government and declared as a memorial house in 1973, is maintained by the TN Public and Information department.
Speaking to TNIE, the caretaker of the house said that the roof over the verandah in the first floor and ground floor collapsed and fell down around 6 pm on Tuesday, a few minutes after she had locked the house and was standing a few feet away from the building. The verandah consisted of a reception to maintain the visitor’s register, and the library displaying books about Bharathiyar.
Sources said the central part of the house, comprising a gallery, statue, and materials like pen, used by the poet, remain undamaged. Poet, freedom fighter and social reformer Subramaniya Bharathiyar was born at Ettayapuram in 1882.
Meanwhile, Ettayapuram tahsildar Suba and PRO Navin Pandian visited the house, following the incident. It may be noted that the TN government had announced Rs 2.5 crore for renovating memorial houses, including Bharathiyar’s house, in the recent budget.
