A wing of EC Block community hall was inaugurated right before the Pujas with MLA and minister Sujit Bose and councilor Tulsi Sinha Roy coming down for the occasion. The entire building now has capacity for 750 people.

“Our community hall was built in the late 80s but it has got several extensions periodically,” said Rudradeb Mukherjea, vice-president of the block. “The newly added portion used to be an open space but huge trees fell on it during the Amphan cyclone. While clearing the debris, we thought of using the space to expand our hall as well.”

When hiring the hall for ceremonies, tenants would frequently hang up a shamiana over this space and make use of it, sending the message that an even bigger hall was quite welcome. Abiding by social distancing norms, the capacity of this new ground floor hall is 150 but once the pandemic blows over, it shall hold 200 people comfortably.

Their ground floor now has two halls that can be used as one if the partition is removed. The first floor has a library and a banquet hall while the top floor has a learning centre where needy students are taught English, mathematics and computer.

“Despite the additional concrete space, we decided not to hold our puja in the community hall this year as it is an enclosed area. We would not have been able to control crowds during anjali,” said block secretary Mouli Nath Maji.

The new space was erected at a cost of Rs 11 lakh, of which Rs 1 lakh was sponsored by the sports and youth welfare department, under the infrastructure development work head. “Sujit Bose helped us with this,” said Mukherjea. “Additional funds were raised from savings from the block along with generous donations from residents Manjusha Das Ghosh and Mihir Chatterjee.”

The auditorium has, in fact, been named Justice SP Das Ghosh Hall after the late husband of Manjusha Das Ghosh. “My husband had humble beginnings in rural India but he worked hard to become a lawyer and then a judge. He always wanted to give back to society so after his untimely demise I thought of furthering his cause,” said Das Ghosh.

Bose congratulated the block for its latest addition. “And it’s a nice gesture to name the hall after eminent residents. That way their memories will stay alive with the next generation,” he said.