CM inaugurates archive containing 500 years of Howrah's history

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday inaugurated the Howrah Municipal Corporation Archive that contains 500 years of the area's history and belongings of some famous people of the district.

Banerjee also inaugurated the book that was published on the completion of seven years of her government. It contains detailed description and success stories of the state government in implementing various projects. Both the inauguration events took place before the administrative review meeting began in Howrah.

It may be mentioned that the Corporation is the first of its kind to have an archive. On the first floor of the two-storeyed archive in Sarat Sadan complex, there is stored Howrah's 500 years of history. At the same time, there is also history of the Howrah Bridge, Howrah Station, trams and 18 ghats along the river Hooghly.

Most importantly, the archive that is spread over an area of around 1,800 sq feet contains articles used by famous people from different fields in the district.

There are articles which were used by doctors from Howrah including Dr R G Kar and Dr Bholanath Chakraborty. Articles used by footballers Sailen Manna and Samar Banerjee were also showcased in the archive.

According to an official of the archive, the place will soon turn up to be a place of interest as one can get to watch the notebook used by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. More interestingly, there is a chair that was used by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose when he had visited Howrah.

The officials of the archive had also collected the articles which were used by the doctor of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. Dr Mohindralal Sarkar, who was a resident of Jagatballavpur, was Ramakrishna's doctor. Articles including some of his writings and letters are some of the expensive ones present in the archive.

Moreover, one can also get to watch an album containing paintings of Nandalal Basu.