Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of Derozio’s 200th birth anniversary, Kolkata Municipal Commisioner Alapon Bandopadhyay said the poet’s house at AJC Bose Road has been listed as one of the prospective city buildings to be given the status of a heritage building.

The Henry Louis Vivian Derozio Memorial Committee will celebrate the poet’s birthday throughout the year till April 18, 2009.

The inaugural ceremony was marked by a floral tribute at Derozio’s grave in the South Park Street Cemetery, and a procession from his house to Subodh Mullick Square. A few participants also went to Derozio Bhavan at Presidency College to pay their tribute. The inaugural ceremony concluded with a cultural programme at the Town Hall in the evening.

Speaking on the occasion, the chairperson of the event and Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya said the Memorial Committee, in association with the Municipal Commission, will also release a book, Derozio Remembered, a commemoration volume, this year. The book was initially slated to be released at the same function, but the mayor insisted that the book must be complete and more comprehensive before its release.

Bhattacharya said that Derozio’s views on rationality and freethinking could be implemented to revolutionise the teacher-student relationship in educational institutions in the state.