Only members who have cleared their subscription till December 2024 will be able to attend the AGM.

IJA office will be open on Tuesday, March 25, 2025 and Saturday, March 29, 2025 from 3 to 5 pm.

Debasish Das,
General Secretary
IJA
Kolkata

IJA Purba Bardhaman District Unit 2025 Committee Leaders

PURBA BARDHAMAN DISTRICT UNIT
New Executive Committee for 2025 – 26

President – Swapan Mukherjee
Vice President – Atanu Hazra, Bijan Ghosh
General Secretary – Arup Laha
Secretary – Santosh Das
Asst. Secretary – Suprakash Chowdhury, Somnath Bhattacharya
Treasurer – Sk Shamsuddin
Office Secretary – Abhijit Saha
Members – Mithilesh Roy, Monotosh Poddar, Partha Chowdhury, Anirban Hazra, Sujit Dutta, Prasun Samanta, Prosenjit Dutta, Uttam Das, Shirshendu Sadhu, Pradip Kumar Mondal.

Approved by – IJA, State Committee

The Centenary Celebrations that got off on Sunday, March 26, 2023 in the presence of Hon’ble Governor of West Bengal, Dr. C.V. Ananda Bose, will end by the 100^th AGM scheduled for March in 2024. Messrs Parth and Das will be in the centre of planning of the rest of the celebrations.

Mr. Parth is the news editor of Rajasthan Patrika in Kolkata and Mr. Das is the Chief Reporter of Dainik Statesman. Both are very active journalists and would bridge the gap between the old and the new in the organisation.

The duo has inherited a large part of the outgoing Executive Council but got new blood in certain key posts. The new team is a good balance of city and district representation

The outgoing general secretary Mr. Sekhar Sengupta has been requested to take up the post of hony. Treasurer by the top guns and he agreed to the task. The outgoing president, Mr. S. Sabanayakan, will be co-opted to maintain the continuity and to help and advise the new office-bearers.

The New Team:

President: K.D. Parth (Rajasthan Patrika)

Vice-Presidents: Shyamal Mukherjee (Sukhabar) & Taraknath Roy (Purbakshan)

General Secretary: Debashis Das (Dainik Statesman)

Secretary: Debjani Laha Ghosh (R-Plus TV Channel)

Assistant Secretaries: Purnendu Chakraborty (Dainik Statesman) & Sukhendu Acharya (Aajkaal)

Treasurer: Sekhar Sengupta (Dainik Statesman)

EXECUTIVE Council Members:

Amitabha Das Sharma (The Hindu), Tapas Ghosh (The Telegraph), Kamalesh Pandey (Sanmarg), Abdul Odud (Puber Kolam), Jagannath Bhoumick (Sangbad Prabhati), Aminur Rahman (Sambad), Jayanta Dutta (Aajkaal Parshu), Tapesh Kumar Basu (Halfil), Aditya Narayan Chowdhury (Khabar Aajkaal Parshu), Goshai Chandra Das (Khas Samachar), Robin Chatterjee (Srijani Samay), Ashish Kumar Ghosh (Yadavkeshari), Biplab Bhattacharya (Bengal Editor), Amit Ukil (Freelance), Chandra Mitra Shee (Dainik Statesman).

IJA President, Mr. S. Sabanayakan, presenting a commemorative plaque to Hon’ble Governor of West Bengal, Dr. C. V. Ananda Bose, during the function to start IJA Centenary Celebrations.

IJA General Secretary, Mr. Sekhar Sengupta, according a traditional welcome to Hon’ble Governor.

IJA Secretary, Mr. Debashis Das, presenting a memento to Hon’ble Governor on Sunday, March 26, 2023

Hon’ble Governor of West Bengal, Dr. C.V. Ananda Bose, on Sunday, March 26, 2023, began the Centenary Celebrations of the Indian Journalists’ Association (IJA) at its 99^th AGM.

Hon’ble Governor, who consented to be the chief guest of the function in a very short notice, gave a lovely speech on media and on freedom of speech. In his nearly 10-minute address, Hon’ble Governor brought in anecdotes and stories to buttress his points of expression that caught the audience, most of them journalists from the city and districts of West Bengal, in rapt attention.

With this programme, the IJA’s 99^th Annual General Meeting also got off to a start.

IJA’s President, Mr. S. Sabanayakan, General Secretary Mr. Sekhar Sengupta, Assistant Secretary, Mr. K.D. Parth received Hon’ble Governor as he arrived at the Press Club, Kolkata, the venue of the AGM.

Dr. Bose was ushered into the main hall where the stage was prepared for the function. As Hon’ble Governor took his seat, President, General Secretary, IJA guests Mr. Taranjit Singh, Mr. Jigor Ramesh Doshi, President and Secretary of Press Club took their seats on the dais.

IJA secretary Mr. Debashis Das, acting as the Master of Ceremony, took the half hour programme to its conclusion starting with the National Anthem and ending it with the National Anthem.

In between Mr. K D Parth presented a bouquet of flowers. Vice-President Shyamal Mukherjee presented Dr. Bose with a shawl. All the dignitaries seated on the stage were given a warm welcome with flower sticks.

Mr. Sabanayakan, IJA President, then delivered his welcome address in which he recalled the rich history of IJA and how it was the forerunner for all the Unions in India. He highlighted the issues concerning present journalists and how the Unions are being sidelined. He insisted that still the journalists’ unions have a lot of scope to work on core issues and the unions need to focus on them in the coming days.

Felicitation of the Hon’ble Governor continued. After the speech by the Press Club President, His Excellency highlighted the 100 years of existence to 100 years of vigilance as a journalist body and went on to speak about journalism and the importance of freedom of speech. The Hon’ble Governor ended his speech saying that the journalists are answerable only to People.

After General Secretary Mr. Sengupta delivered his Vote of Thanks, the function concluded with the National Anthem.

After a break, the 99^th AGM began at the same venue. After completing the business as per the agenda the house elected a new team that will take over the Centenary Celebrations to its conclusion before the beginning of 100^th AGM in March 2024.

The President of the Chandigarh-Punjab Union of Journalists and a Press Council of India member, Mr. Vinod Kohli, was unanimously elected as the President of IJU. He was the lone candidate in fray.

The President of India’s oldest journalists union, Indian Journalists’ Association (IJA), West Bengal, Mr. S. Sabanayakan, was unanimously elected as the Secretary General of IJU. He too was the lone candidate in fray.

Mr. Habib Khan, Central Returning Officer for IJU Election 2022, declared the election results recently at Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh).

The two principal office-bearers of the IJU will have the onerous task of not only rebuilding the Union into a vibrant one but also have the tough task of spreading the Union to all parts of the country. Shri Kohli, who would be leading IJU for the first time in over four decades of journalistic life, said, “The primary task is to rearrange the priorities of the IJU. Unionism in the country is in shambles as there are too many splinter groups operating without any aim or agenda. Our task is to bring all likeminded Unions under one umbrella and give a momentum to the movement.”

Elaborating further, he said, “IJU would like to walk the thorny path to achieve its goals nationally. IJU would also focus on its state unions and encourage them to renew their drive to bring in more journalists under their ambit so that a greater cause can be served.”

Shri Kohli has more than 48 years of experience in journalism having worked in various print outlets. A graduate in psychology and journalism, he had been the General Secretary, Chandigarh-Punjab Union of Journalists; General Secretary of The Tribune Journalists Guild and presently the President of Chandigarh-Punjab Union of Journalists.

He has been made a member of the Press Council of India (2021 onward). He is also a member of Election Commission of India, Level Committee on Paid/Fake News (April 2022 onward), he was also a member the Central Press Accreditation Committee (CPAC), Govt. of India (2004 to 2007) and was an IJU Convener, Majithia Wage Board Committee for Working Journalists.

Shri Sabanayakan has nearly four decades of experience in journalism after joining Indian Express Kolkata bureau in 1980. After four and a half years, he joined The Telegraph, Kolkata. After spending exactly a decade, he joined The Hindu, Kolkata news bureau and served the institution for a little over two decades. Thereafter, he began to contribute to The Assam Tribune group and in 2018 he joined Eastern Chronicle when it opened its Kolkata edition.

Shri Sabanayakan was a member of West Bengal Union of Journalists for 10 years before joining IJA on assuming office in The Hindu. After being in the Executive Council for many years, he accepted to head Indian Journalists’ Association in 2013. After a break of one year in 2016, he returned to head IJA from 2017.

The association, which stepped into its 100^th year, had its first executive meeting on Monday, April 18, 2022, at the IJA office where the following office-bearers and Committee members were decided.

The meeting finalized to begin the association’s centenary celebrations on June 22, 2022, with a panel discussion on the future of trade unionism. All the top trade union leaders of the state will be invited to participate in the programme. Chief Minister, Smt. Mamata Banerjee will be approached to inaugurate the celebrations.

A centenary celebrations committee will be formed in the next meeting in May. A number of sub-committees will also be formed to focus on the core issues concerning the members and the association.

THE TEAM

President: S. Sabanayakan

General Secretary: Sekhar Sengupta

Vice-Presidents: Taraknath Roy and Shyamal Mukherjee

Secretary: Debasish Das

Assistant Secretaries: Sukhendu Acharya and Kamlesh Pandey

Treasurer: Amitabha Das Sharma

Members: Supriyo Bandyopadhyay, K.D. Parth, Tapas Ghosh, Purnendu Chakraborti, Abdul Odud, Debjani Laha Ghosh, Jagannath Bhowmick, Aminur Rahaman, Jayanta Dutta, Tapesh Kumar Basu, Adityanarayan Chowdhury, Gosai Chandra Das, Rana Mukherjee, Ashish Kumar Ghosh, Robin Chatterjee.

Coopted: Shyamal Naskar, Prabhat Ghosh, Chandra Mitra Shee, Prosenjit Dutta, Amit Ukil.

Former minister Manish Gupta (left) exchanging greetings with party colleagues and ministers Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay (centre) and Manas Ranjan Bhunia (right) before the start of the IJA AGM at Press Club, Kolkata, on March 27.

IJA President, S. Sabanayakan, welcoming minister Manas Ranjan Bhunia to the AGM.

General Secretary Sekhar Sengupta (centre) and President, S. Sabanayakan, welcome well known artiste at the start of the AGM .

Eligible members are requested to attend the AGM on time.

Sekhar Sengupta,
General Secretary

The chief guest of the function was local MLA Sitanath Ghosh whose speech on media was invigorating to the young minds.

State president S. Sabanayakan spoke on two language formulas in journalism and how one more language other than the mother tongue will help in the profession. State general secretary, Sekhar Sengupta, lectured on journalism, the role of IJA in encouraging the profession and its centenary programme.

The question and answer session was very lively with the audience asking questions that varied from journalism to morality of the society.

On the occasion a souvenir was released. Local organisation headed by district president Shyamal Naskar, general secretary Ashis Ghosh and convenor Manas Manna did a wonderful job.

The district committee distributed participation certificates to all in the second session after a sumptuous lunch.