Alipore Museum inaugurated, idol-making workshop at Victoria Memorial...

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Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday inaugurated the Alipore Museum. The museum has been developed on the premises of the erstwhile Alipore Central Correctional Home on Judges Court Road. The correctional home was closed in 2019 and all the inmates were shifted to Baruipur Central Correctional Home. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee took the initiative to restore the correctional home buildings and set up a museum to celebrate the 75th year of Indian Independence. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had contested and won Kolkata's mayoral election in 1930 from a single-accommodation cell inside the Alipore Jail. It was here that Bose had also cooked for his mentor Chittaranjan Das when both were imprisoned at the same time. A young Indira Gandhi visited her father Jawaharlal Nehru, incarcerated in a cell in Alipore Jail. The cells and the buildings where Bose, Nehru and Das stayed were never used to keep other inmates post-Independence and were preserved as relics of history. Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister said, “The need of the hour is to preserve our history. To make the museum attractive, a part of the wall has paintings by noted artists. The glorious history of the freedom struggle will be depicted every evening through a light and sound show. A special exhibition on Netaji and Gandhiji has been planned.’’

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An exhibit at the museum.

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Schoolchildren learn how to make eco-friendly Durga idols at a workshop at Victoria Memorial on Wednesday.