Aswini Kumar Town Hall

'Aswini Kumar Town Hall' is situated in the middle of barisal town. It was once the only cultural centre of southern Bengal. From the beginning it was used as a venue for meetings, plays, fairs etc. As it of is situated in the centre of the town, the people of Barisal know it better as Town Hall. It was named in memory of aswini kumar datta, who had dedicated his life to the development of Barisal.

The establishment of the hall was occasioned by a historical event. In 1906 the police attacked a procession at Raja Bahadur';s palace. Aswini Kumar Dutta proposed that a hall be built to commemorate this incident. Accordingly, in 1920, a committee was formed with Aswini Kumar as president and Sharatchandra Guha as secretary. On 15 October 1920 the land was purchased from the owners of Raja Bahadur';s palace. In August 1921, the foundation of the hall was laid, and construction was started. In the meantime, Aswini Kumar fell ill and died in Kolkata on 7 November 1923. At a condolence meeting, it was unanimously agreed that the hall be named after him. The construction of the Hall was, however, completed in 1930.

The construction of the hall cost about Rupees 40,000. The construction cost came from a fund collected for the non-cooperation movement, khilafat movement, and the provincial meeting of 1921. Among others responsible for the construction of the hall were Barodakanta Bandyopadhyay, Durgamohan Sen, Jyotishchandra Lahiri, Wahed Raja Chowdhury, Hashem Ali Khan, Badsha Miah Chowdhury, Islam Khan Chowdhury etc. [Md Masud Parvez] [Parvez, Md Masud Government Vocational Training Institute, Munshiganj]