Vivek Chetana Utsav to pay homage to Swami Vivekananda being observed across Bengal

Kolkata: The Bengal Government is celebrating the 156th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda in association with the Ramakrishna Math and Mission through the three-day long Vivek Chetana Utsav, from January 10-12.

All the 341 blocks, 117 municipalities, six municipal corporations of the State, the 144 wards of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, the Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA) and all the district headquarters are celebrating Vivek Chetana Utsav through processions, exhibitions, symposiums and quiz competitions on the life of Swami Vivekananda, and debates, exhibition football matches and other cultural programmes.

The State Youth Welfare Department is organising the festival. It may be noted that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had declared January 12 as a State holiday from 2012.

Vivek Tirtha, named after Swami Vivekananda, has been planned to be one of the premier institutes of the country, comprising of a centre for value education, a school of languages, a computer institute, a digital library and more. It is being set up in New Town. 

The formal name of the place is Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Centre for Human Excellence and Social Sciences.This top-class centre of education is being set up on land given by the Trinamool Congress Government. In fact, it was Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who had laid the foundation stone of the institute, on November 11, 2014, and had also named it 'Vivek Tirtha'.

The project will cost about Rs 172 crore. Five acres has been allotted beside Eco Park.The centre will have a 10-storey building to house the administrative office, seminar halls and an auditorium, with a capacity of 1,400.(UNI)