President stresses importance of preserving Bangla heritage

Midnapore (WB), May 6: President

on Monday, called for preserving West Bengal's rich heritage and lauded the efforts of the state chief minister in this direction.

Mukherjee stressed that it was everybody's duty not to let the state's rich heritage be ruined, while inaugurating the 175th anniversary of the prestigious Midnapore Collegiate School. The President said that Mamata Banerjee was doing a commendable job in keeping alive the heritage and assured her of help in "whatever small measure" he could.

Midnapore Collegiate School is one of the oldest schools not only in Bengal, but India as well. Some of Bengal's luminaries were associated with this school like freedom fighter Khudiram Bose and writers Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Manik Bandopadhyay and Rishi Rajnarayan Basu.

The popular "Anusilan Kendra", the nursery of Bengal terrorist movement against British rule, which was started by revolutionaries Hemchandra Kanungo and Anath Bandhu Panja, had its origin here in this school.

The West Bengal Heritage Commission organised a news conference earlier last year at the Rabindranath Tagore Centre, ICCR, to announce its plans for Chandraketugarh, an archaeological site in North 24-Parganas, 34km from Calcutta.

PTI