Celebrating it's existence of 75 th Year and platinum jubilee Installation ceremony on 6 th July'22 with an eventful year beginning at the club premise on the anniversary of its Platinum Jubilee. More than 200 people made up of members, their partners , district representatives and local partners will attend this function to recognize the club's legacy of service in the Howrah District of West Bengal, India.
A few dedicated friends from Calcutta planted a sapling of Rotary ideas in city of Howrah. That sapling grew into a tree and bore fruits all through 75 years to help mankind.
The Rotary ideas were brought to Howrah by Rtn. Sukumar Das, the then member of R. C. Calcutta with encouragement from PDG Rtn. N. C. Laharry with other member of R. C. Calcutta Rtn. Saroj Ghosh and the club was organized. The formal meeting was held on 3 rd October, 1947 and provisional R. C. Howrah was formed by 35 members in a territory released by R. C. Calcutta. It was the 3 rd Club in the State of West Bengal in the then R. I. District 53. The charter was granted on 16 th February, 1948 and the Charter No. 6835 was presented on 23 rd June, 1948 ; by no less a personality than Past RIP N. C. Laharry in the regime of D.G. Rtn. Cifford Agarwala of Patna with membership of twenty five.
The founder President of the Club was Rtn. B. C. Dutta, an eminent academician and Barister of Calcutta High Court. Rtn. Sukumar Das was the first Hony. Secretary. The venue of the regular meeting was Railway European Institute Hall (Presently named as Eastern Railway Officers Club). The old venue continued until that was shifted to the Club's own premises at the Rotary Community Hall, B-Church Road , Howrah in 1982. Out of the total 25 Charter members, 12 adorned the Presidential Chair, but none is alive.
The first meeting of the club was held at the residence of Late Rtn. Pannalal Mukherjee, Shibpur Road, Howrah followed by a meeting at North Howrah at the residence of Late M. C. Dhiman, Benaras Road , Salkia , Howrah.
We have One Interact Cub, One Rotaract Club and 5 nos .active RCCs in addition we sponsored one Inner Wheel Club also. It gives us great pleasure to write that our club is the fourteenth oldest club in South East Asia Region to celebrate the golden jubilee. We are the 57 th oldest club in India and second oldest club of our RID 3291.
This is the 75 th years of installation. Seventy five years in the life of an organization is long enough necessitating a look into the past and take stock of what our predecessors, general members, other partners in service and the beneficiaries together have done or achieved. Knowledge about the past helps to build the future. There may be failure but surely & certainly there have been success & satisfaction, bright & dark moment, great periods of enthusiasm, periods of depression, organized team work and individual service. Being President oriented club each year a new President takes over charge with his new team and theme of Rotary International. All of them work together not for any personal benefit but to achieve the schedule targets in all the services in Rotary. We are proud of our close association with RI District Leaders. The club received unstinted support & constant encouragement from them for reaching the goal of Rotary.
Our club could build its own building after 34 years of its existence. Heartfelt thanks to them who contributed for this generously. Ist Bulletin of provisional R. C. Howrah came out in the 7 th Meeting in February, 1948 at Eastern Railway European Hall. The bulletin is still continuing in the same name “ The Bridge “ Our 75 th Installation Meeting will be the 3616 th RWM which itself is a record and to inform everybody we like to tell that no meeting was cancelled in between except due to death of club member on that day or National holidays or closed due to Covid – 19 Pandemic as per Rotary International circular.
The First Board of Directors, was formed with the following Members and as on date no body is alive.
President - Rtn. Bankim Chandra Dutta
Vice-President - Rtn. Saila Mukherjee
Secretary - Rtn. Sukumar Das
Treasurer - Rtn. Pannalal Mukherjee
Rtn. Probodh Chandra Nag
Directors - Rtn. Dhirendra Kumar Das
Rtn. Mahendra Kundu
Rtn. Prafulla Chandra Mitra
Rtn. Mrityunjay Banerjee
We have celebrated our golden jubilee year in 1998 under the preside ship of Late Rtn. Madan Datta.
This year under the convenorship of PP Rtn.Santanu Banerjee the Platinum Jubilee Committee decided to celebrate the year by organizing the following events :-
a) Platinum Jubilee Project “ Let the underprivileged Children Sleep comfortably “ …… by distributing bedrolls to them through our active RCCs ( each bedroll containing one 3 ft x 6 ft mattress , one school bag , set of story books , water bottle, one steel plate, tumbler and glass, one umbrella etc )
b) Recognition of Spouses of Rotarian members of entire RID 3291who are m embers for more than 40 years in the RID Conference 2022-23 to be held in the Jan'23 during “ Membership sessions “ since we strongly believe, Spouses in Rotary - An obvious Avenue to Development and will be recognized for the first time in the history of RID 3291 ( Discussed and decided in the meeting with RIDE Rtn. Anirudh Roy Chowdhury,2023-25 and DG Rtn. Ajay law, 2022-23)
c) One Platinum Jubilee club fellowship tour involving most of the members and their spouses
d) To touch the membership strength of the club from 36 nos as on 30 th June'22 to 75 nos as on 30 th
June'23 by following the principle of “ Each one – Bring one “
e) Platinum Jubilee Contributory lunch / Dinner on Closing day along with club drama to be performed by
Family of Rotary Howrah,
f) To publish one club memoir ,
g) Construction of Past president's gallery latest by 31 st july'22 in our own club building
h) Construction of first floor of the pre-primary school already maintained by one of our active RCC at
Amta.
i) To make our club one 100% PHF Club by 30 th June'22 |
