States » EastPosted at: Sep 30 2026 3:19PM


Vidyasagar’s birthplace set for a major makeover; Bengal CM unveils Rs 10.59-cr projects

Midnapore, Sep 30 (UNI) West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Wednesday announced a major heritage and tourism push for Birsingha, the birthplace of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, promising to turn the village into a destination for visitors, researchers and students while unveiling a slew of infrastructure projects worth several crores.
Speaking at a programme marking Vidyasagar’s birth anniversary according to the Bengali calendar, Adhikari said the government would widen roads, create accommodation facilities, expand the library and museum and develop the area’s natural surroundings so that the birthplace of the 19th-century social reformer emerges as an attraction for people from across India.
“I want to make Vidyasagar’s birthplace an ideal destination not through speeches but through action,” Adhikari said.
The Chief Minister announced that the Tourism Department would establish a sizeable residential hostel where students, young visitors and tourists could stay.
He also directed the department to initiate construction of special cottages for researchers and writers working on Vidyasagar, subject to land availability from the district administration.
The government also sanctioned a series of local infrastructure projects. These include Rs 1.20 crore for solar street lights along the five-km stretch from Singadah More to Smriti Mandir, Rs 35 lakh for redevelopment of Boro Puskarini Park as Vidyasagar Shishu Udyan, and Rs 40 lakh for upgrading the Notuk PHC and Mohanpur GP.
Another Rs 50 lakh has been sanctioned for a guard wall and concrete walkway from Narayanchandra Khirki Pukur to Smriti Mandir, while Rs 74 lakh will be spent on a concrete road from the Mamrajpur ICDS Centre to Arjun Ari Shibtala temple within Birsingha GP.
A market complex along with a community hall under the development authority near Panskura bus stand in Ghatal will be constructed at a cost of Rs 8 crore. The government has also sanctioned Rs 35 lakh for a new SCR building at Birsingha Bhagabati Vidyalaya.
Adhikari said he had also directed the Tourism Department to work on developing Birsingha as a place where Vidyasagar scholars could stay and conduct research.
The Chief Minister used the occasion to invoke Vidyasagar’s legacy of social reform, particularly his campaign for widow remarriage and women’s education.
He said the government would draw on the reformer’s ideas to address social problems including child marriage and substance abuse.
Adhikari said West Bengal needed to break out of the social problems gripping the state by following the path shown by Vidyasagar and Raja Rammohan Roy.
He also announced that the government would encourage school libraries to acquire Vidyasagar’s works, criticising the practice of purchasing books without adequate attention to their educational value.
The Chief Minister unveiled statues of Vidyasagar’s parents, Thakurdas Bandyopadhyay and Bhagabati Devi, under an SBI corporate social responsibility initiative implemented through an NGO.
He also interacted with three young women who had resisted attempts to marry them off while they were minors, citing their action as an example of the social reform principles associated with Vidyasagar.
Adhikari said he had visited Birsingha several times in the past but was visiting the village for the first time as Chief Minister.
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