Maintain peace and harmony in festive season: Mamata

Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee urged people to maintain peace and communal harmony during the festive season.

She released the festival edition of Jago Bangla, the mouthpiece of the party at a function at Nazrul Mancha on Friday evening.

Recalling the earlier days of the mouthpiece, she said that she along with Partha Chatterjee, party’s secretary general helped the weekly come into being. “We two, Partha da and I started the newspaper and later many more joined it to make it a success.” She thanked the writers for their contributions which has enriched the festival number.

Two veteran vocalists, Sandhya Mukhopadhyay and Dwijen Mukherjee who were present on the stage were felicitated by Mamata Banerjee. The duo had sung in Mahishamardini scripted by Banikumar and musical composition by Pankaj Mullick which was aired by the All India Radio that was then housed in a building on Gerstein Place. Birendra Krishna Bhadra had recited the hymns from Chandi. The octogenarian Mukhopadhyay stunned and enthralled the audience by singing a few lines from her famous song “Ma Go”. Mukherjee narrated the recording and the “presence of sahib ghost in the house of Gerstein Place.” He said Banerjee’s love and concern for the artists was phenomenal and no one had ever shown such respect to the artists and people from the cultural world.

Banerjee said the chanting of the hymns by Birendra Krishna Bhadra is immortal and after listening to it one felt that “Durga Puja was knocking on the door.” “Birendra Krishna’s Mahalaya is a time tested programme and will continue to inspire people for years to come,” she remarked.

Scholar Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri, Malini Malik and Meena Bhul, mothers of Tapashi and Rajkumar, two martyrs of Singur movement against acquisition of farmland were also felicitated. Trinamool leaders Abhishek Banerjee, Partha Chatterjee, Firhad Hakim, Aroop Biswas, Sobhandeb Chatterjee and Manas Bhuniya were on the dais. The state minister for Information and Cultural Affairs Indranil Sen conducted the programme.

The Chief Minister also painted the eyes of goddess Durga at Chetla Agrani Sangha on Friday evening. The puja is organised by the state Urban development minister Firhad Hakim. Generally the eyes of goddess Durga are painted on the day of Mahalaya.

Earlier, she inaugurated the community puja of  Aheritala Sarbojanin in North Kolkata. She also inaugurated the communities pujas of 95 Palli and Naktala Udayan Sangha, organised by the state Education minister Partha Chatterjee.