Jessore Collectorate Building

Jessore Collectorate building is one of the most age old structure of British empire in the Indian subcontinent. Jessore was founded as the first district of Bangladesh. It was declared as a district in the year 1781 and the collectorate was established in 1786. Mr. Tilman Henckell (1781-1789) was the first District Magistrate of Jessore.

The collectorate building of Jessore was built in 1801. It is situated at the Daratana Morh of jessore town. The ground floor of this existing structure was constructed in 1885. The first floor of the building was built in 1982.

It is to mention that, Jessore district was established as a first administrative distrist in this country due to apprehending control over the people of this area who were seemed to be more furious against the British empire. In the year of (1861-1863) Khulna, Magura, Jhinaidah, Narail were declared as Mahkumas under Jessore district. Khulna was segregated as a different district in 1881. After the establishment of Chabbish Pargana district, the area of Satkhira was taken with Chabbish Pargana district and Bangram was added with Jessore as a Mahkuma in 1863. Alfadanga was the part of Mohammadpur Thana of Magura Mahkuma since 1960. Then Alfadanga was made part of the Faridpur district. The oldest district of this country was again reshaped in 1947 by cutting Bangram Mahkuma and in 1984 by declaring Narail, Jhinaidah and Magura as different districts.

North Part of the Building

West Part of the Building

North-West Part of the Building

South Part of the Building (Entrance)

Treasury Section of the Collectorate

Life OnThe Bank of Fatki River & Chamrar Bill; Salikha, Magura

The bus journey (local) took only (45-50) minutes from Jessore to Arpara. When I landed from the bus It was only 8:45 a.m., a sunny winter morning of the February 2012. I was almost one hour ahead from my schedule time. I had to wait for one of my colleague to come there. So, decided to step forward, to explore Arpara Bazar area of Magura district until his presence. This bazaar was established at the very adjacent to the Fatki river. The bridge on the Fatki river was connecting the highway between Dhaka and Jessore. It was so frustrating to watch the lean flow of water in the river but it was still charming to evident the locally built Palm tree boat (Taler Donga). These kinds of boats had been used in almost every areas of Bangladesh. But this tool became scanty due to cultural shifting of our society from the water bodies.

My colleague came at 9:30 a.m. and we started for “Naghosha Nabapolli” village by van. We were there to brief some secondary school teachers about the positive impacts of Books reading programme among the students and overall in our society. While Tanvir (Colleague) was busy with delivering his speech and other official task, I came out from the school premises and got a beautifully flourished Cotton (Simul) tree with chirping birds and took some snaps.

Salikh

Squirrel

After finishing our job in the “Singair” village (Last one for the day), we were our return way to Arpara bazaar. From the van, we saw a vast water body to our left and there were herons plying on the green fields. At that moment, I was nurturing a plan but also confused “whether should I stop here to explore the greenery and remotest bill or should I go with Tanvir? Because, It seems very odd to leave him alone as well as to ask him to stay with me to have a ride towards the bill.” But swallowing the discomfort, I offered him to going and leaving me there. Surprisingly, he refused and told me “Ashif vai, It is not good to enjoy only in yourself. I also wish to stay with you.” We started walking straight to the bill by stumping the mud with bare feet. We were walking through the rice field and muds were touching our knees too. We came to know that the bill is locally named as “Chamrar Bill”. As much we were forwarding, the herons were continuously changing their position and keeping a safe distance from us. Farmers were working in the field, young boys catching fishes in the bill were so fascinating to watch. We could not reach at the edge of the bill due to rising depths of mud and water levels. But we enjoyed the walk and greeneries around us.

Finge