Former JU students organise year-long celebrations to pay reverence to institute

Kolkata: The Alumni Association of National Council of Education (NCE) Bengal and Jadavpur University has embarked upon a yearlong centenary celebration with an aim to give back to the varsity and the society through some social work.

The association is stepping into its hundredth year of services to the Alma Mater and to the society in January 2020.

"We are trying to offer free fellowship to extremely meritorious students, extend hostel floor, construct bio toilet, take measures for composting plant for treatment of kitchen waste, creation of a technology bank to facilitate cutting edge research," said Aloke Mookherjea, chairman of centenary organising committee.

The curtain-raiser for the celebrations began on Thursday with the association holding a seminar in presence of former SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya and Sukanta Chaudhuri, professor Emeritus of JU.

There will be another international seminar on December 2 and it will be followed by the inauguration of centenary celebration of the varsity on January 8, 2020.

There will be a number of activities in the form of seminars and memorial lectures next year and the valedictory function will be held in January 2021.

It may be mentioned that the first alumni association was established on January 1, 1921 at Jadavpur by the ex-students and faculty members of Bengal Technical Institute (latter College of Engineering and Technology, CET Bengal) under the NCE Bengal which was founded in 1906. Rishi Aurobindo had joined the college as its principal while stalwarts like Rabindranath Tagore, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy, Rashbehari Ghosh were deeply involved with the very core of NCE. After independence CET underwent a rapid expansion and in December 1955 it transformed into Jadavpur University and then the alumni association was renamed as Alumni Association, NCE Bengal and Jadavpur University.