About
The history of Tripura press is traced to the way back in 1860 with the publication of monthly literary newspaper Gnyan Prakashani from Bikrampur of present Bangladesh by one Kailash Chandra Sarkar. There is a chronological development of media since then in Tripura. After independence in 1947, the growth of the press became consistent and gradually it took a professional shape in Tripura. With the development of media industry in the state, the then legends of journalism like Lt Jiten Paul, Lt Biresh Chakraborty, Lt R K Kamaljit Singh, Lt Khagendra Nath Bhattacharjee and Sri Subal Kumar Dey first raised the demand for setting up Press Club under the banner of ‘Tripura Sangbabik Sangha’ soon after the first elected government of Tripura state sworn in 1972.
The demand for press club and other professional issues of journalists had got momentum during the unfortunate ethnic clash in 1980. The role of media became visible to the state government when newspapers had gone critical writing against the Lottery scam during the first Left Front government headed by Chief Minister Lt Nripen Chakraborty. To manage the situation, the government in 1982 had taken initiative for setting up Agartala Press Club. The government formed a five members committee belonging to ‘Reporters’ Guild’ (Journalists working for outside media houses) headed by Lt Amiya Debroy.
The committee was assigned to write by-laws for the proposed Press Club and to organise elections for new managing committee. In January 1983, the first elected managing committee was taken over the charge of Agartala Press Club where Lt Amiya Debroy was elected as President and Sri Satyabrata Chakraborty was elected as Secretary. Following severe criticism on Lottery scam, the government had to close down the business and the Chief Minister Lt Nripen Chakraborty had sanctioned Rupees One Lakh for the construction of building for Agartala Press Club at the present location. Initially, the managing committee of the Press Club was elected for one year but later after due amendments in the Club constitution, the term of the committee has been extended for two years. The 6th Left Front government headed by Chief Minister Sri Manik Sarkar in 2008 had sanctioned the project for new Press Club building with modern facilities including auditoriums. Despite expansion of media canvass and advent of electronic media, Agartala Press Club had kept the process of new membership halt for past many years.
Taking over charge of the management by the adhoc committee in April 2018 after the elected committee resigned, the process for induction of new member started based on the constitution while review of existing membership has also begun under a set of rule. As part of transparency, the mode of operation and all transactions have been switched over to digital platform now and level of services and amenities for the members are given highest priority to retain the glory of Agartala Press Club and value of journalism.
