CM to inaugurate 'I-Day Museum' at Alipore Central Correctional Home

KOLKATA: The Independence Day Museum at Alipore Central Correctional Home is likely to be inaugurated either on August 14 or August 26. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will inaugurate the museum.

Mayor Firhad Hakim visited the correctional home and inspected the restoration work. The inmates have been shifted to Baruipur.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took the initiative to restore the jail buildings and set up a museum to celebrate the 75th year of Indian Independence.

The Independence Museum has been set up where photographs of the revolutionaries have been put up.

There will be another room dedicated to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Mahatma Gandhi. Noted historian Professor Sugata Bose has helped the state government to select the photographs. Painters Suvaprasanna and Jogen Chowdhury along with 10 other painters have made drawings on the freedom struggle.

Housing and infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO) has been entrusted to do the restoration job.

Alipore Central Jail and Presidency Jail had played important roles in Indian national movement.

Built in 1906, the jail stands on 15. 5 acres. Jawaharlal Nehru was kept as a prisoner in the jail for some time. Four revolutionaries who later became Mayor of Calcutta had been kept at the jail as prisoners. CR Das, JM Sengupta, Subhas Chandra Bose and Dr BC Roy had served jail term at the correctional home.

Dr Roy deliberately took rigorous imprisonment so that he could treat the prisoners who fell sick.

Five out of 35 buildings have been restored. There is a place where the prisoners used to make khadi cloth with the help of 'charka.' There are torture chambers.

Dinesh Gupta, arrested in connection with the killing of Simpson at the Writers' Building in 1930 was hanged at the Alipore Central Jail on July 1931. More than 50 revolutionaries were hanged at the Alipore Central jail.

The landscaping has been done inside the correctional home.

A light and sound show similar to the one in the Cellular Jail in Andaman has been proposed.

The main purpose of the museum is to inform the younger generation about the Independence movement. Bengal, Punjab and Maharastra had played the major role in the revolutionary movements in the country.