Other States - Rajasthan   

CPI razes old landmark for its new office complex

JAIPUR: Following the footsteps of the big brother, the CPI (M), in the Pink City is the Communist Party of India (CPI) which has made plans to construct an office complex complete with auditoriums, seminar halls, library and residential accommodation for guests and workers from far and near.

On the New Year day Kumaranand Swami Hall, a 30-year-old landmark for progressive groups in the Rajasthan capital in the Hathroi Fort area, was razed to the ground to make way for the new structure which the party leaders here say, would come up with people’s cooperation.

On the New Year eve the partymen and the like-minded intellectuals had met in the premises for a remembrance meeting on Kumaranand Swami, whose death anniversary falls on December 29. A formal announcement on the new office complex was made on this occasion.

Kumaranand Swami, born as Dwijendra Kumar Nag in 1889 in Chittagong to Bengali parents, had been mentor to many Rajasthan freedom fighters including the late Jainarain Vyas and Manicklal Verma, and was the founder of the first textile workers union in the State in 1936.

The building carried lot of memories for those involved in the trade union activities and even senior Congressmen as it had served as a meeting place for the Congress after the party lost the present Pradesh Congress Committee office on Station Road to a splinter group in the wake of the post Emergency split.

“We have started work assuming that the finances would follow. The existing premises have been grossly inadequate for multifarious activities the party wanted to carry out,” noted Dushyant Ojha, CPI Secretary, Rajasthan. The complex would have seminar halls in the basement as well as on the ground floor while the first floor would house the offices related to AITUC, the trade union affiliated to the party.

“All these years we wanted to add another floor to the existing building but could not for the fear of its weak structure caving in ,” Tara Singh Sidhu, another senior leader of CPI, observed.

Two years back the Communist Party of India (Marxist) had completed the construction of its first own State-level office in the city with public contributions after functioning from B 4 MLA Quarters - the Government accommodation allocated to its lone MLA in the State Assembly - for many years. Now if State Secretary of the CPI (M) Vasudev is to be believed, the premises have given a new self-confidence to the partymen in Rajasthan.

However unlike the CPI (M), the CPI has had a place of its own since the early eighties thanks to the two plots measuring a total of 1508 sq. yard, allocated by the Congress Government led by the late Mohan Lal Sukhadia in the year 1975.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Raje Govt. announces load-shedding schedule
CPI razes old landmark for its new office complex
Boy kills father in a fit of rage
Jaipur foot inventer passes away

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu