Today is the birthday of the great great son of Bengal. I am fortunate that I had an excellent opportunity to see him while I was a student of school .
He was the then Chief Minister of west Bengal.It is very difficult to evaluate his much supremacy in three fields like medical profession , Administrator and politics.He was the most surprising personality of the country as a physician the county has ever produced.
Possibly he was the only Indian who completed his MRCP and FRCS within one year from UK.
As a physician he did miracles in respect of huge number of patients.Besides it is rare case where same person had qualified in both medicine and surgery. The most surprising thing is that he could diagnose by seeing the patients without going for any test.Besides , during his time no such arrangements of tests were available like today.
Even after being Chief Minister he used to examine few patients everyday at his residence.As a Chief Minister he held the office for fourteen years.He took over at a very crucial time.
At that time the east of the Bengal was included in Pakistan and renamed as East Pakistan.As a result of partition of Bengal from the former east part of Bengal huge number of people came here as refugees for which acute shortages of accommodation and food developed.
He faced the crisis bravely and efficiently.He established Ashokenagar for refugees ,a big township consisting of about ten thousand homes . He established Kalyani City . He established state Transport corporation with the object of employment of many young persons.During his tenure Haringhata milk project ,Durgapur steel city and Laketown and Salt Lake City were established.
He also established chittaranjan Railway Locomotive factory etc.It is indeed surprising that during his tenure of only fourteen years how he could do such huge work.Another very important thing must be mentioned and I would like to attract the attention of the present generation. During his early days of practice as a physician he also worked as a part time taxi driver.
Apart from his immense reputation as physician something should be said about his political career. In 1923 he joined politics and within a very short time he became an important political leader.Firstly he became Mayor of KMC . In 1942 he was also nominated as VC of Calcutta University.
The great son of the country died on first July 1962 on his birthday.