President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday inaugurated Art Gallery of historic Audrey House and placed foundation stone for Jharkhand Technical University on line from there.
The art gallery was inaugurated by the President after he returned from Hazaribagh. Spread in over 800-sqft the renovated art gallery houses around 200 wall paintings depicting traditional lifestyle of tribal communities of Jharkhand. The restoration work was done by a panel of experts which included Ashok Bhaumik from lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi, Milan Das from Bihar Kala Academy and members of Shantiniketan. The heritage building has been restored completely by the State government.
The President strolled in the aisles of the art gallery to observe lives of the original inhabitants, their customs and tradition writ large on the walls of the gallery. “He saw the paintings and asked about the artists. He looked at few paintings,” said Amitabh Mukherjee, one of the three artists who worked for the gallery.
After giving consent to Jharkhand Technical University Bill-2011, Mukherjee laid foundation stone of the State’s first technical university from the premises of Audrey House. The university would come up at Badgawan in Namkum at an estimated cost of Rs 80.98-crore. The construction work would be undertaken by Engineering India Project limited. The technical university is likely to bring uniformity in technical education syllabus.
The university would function with Vice-chancellor, registrar, director, examination controller and finance officer besides a high-level committee which will chart syllabus for technical courses. The university would govern affiliation related matters of various technical institutions.
Earlier the President arrived at Birsa Munda Airport at Ranchi on afternoon for a two-day visit and went to Hazaribagh. There he was greeted by Governor Draupadi Murmu and Chief Minister Raghubar Das and other top officials of the State Government at the airport before he was flown to Hazaribagh to preside over the convocation ceremony of Vinoba Bhave University.
On the second day of his visit, the President would be taking part in the 88th Nikhil Bharat Bang Sahitya Sammelan at Hotwar and then in the Diamond Jubilee convocation ceremony of Birla Institute of Technology.