CM forms panel to celebrate 150 years of Vande Mataram

Kolkata: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, during a cabinet meeting on Monday, formed a special committee to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Vande Mataram — the national song of India, composed by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in 1875 and a source of great inspiration during the freedom movement.

The proposal was approved at the state cabinet meeting, said finance minister Chandrima Bhattacharya. She mentioned that the committee will be chaired by Leena Gangopadhyay, with former chief secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay as vice-chairman and writer Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay as chief adviser. Members of the committee include writer Abul Bashar, poets Srijato Bandopadhyay and Subodh Sarkar, artist Shuvaprasanna, film director Gautam Ghosh, and actors Prosenjit Chatterjee, Parambrata Chatterjee and Deepak Adhikari.


Officials said an event will be organised at Chinsurah in Hooghly, where Chattopadhyay composed Vande Mataram while serving as a district official. Programmes are also planned at Kanta Para in Naihati, North 24-Parganas — birthplace of the author, officials said.