History of Hazi A. K. Khan College

Hariharpara is a remote village in the district of Murshidabad. The main source of income of the inhabitants of this village along with the adjacent ones is cultivation. Education, specifically higher education, had been almost an alien and unattainable affair to the people of this region. However, it is a typical human instinct to endeavour to see the unseen, to know the unknown, to proceed towards prosperity; and ultimately education prevails.

In 1998, a group of educationally advanced and socially responsible persons got aspired to establish a college at Hariharpara. A committee was formed, and a meeting was convened at Hariharpara Community Hall. The generous Hazi Abdul Kader Khan, who realised that if the mothers are not educated, the upcoming generations cannot be educated, dreamed of a college where the young girls along with the young boys of his locality could pursue higher education. As the initiative for the establishment of a college was taken enthusiastically, Hazi A. K. Khan felt overwhelmed with happiness to donate a precious piece of land (1.82 acre) on which Hazi A. K. Khan College was established. The Hariharpara Siksha O Unnayan Parishad (the Hariharpara Education and Development Council) applied for the government sanction as well as affiliation. As proposed by Mr. Hatemul Islam, a renowned journalist, the college was named after the name of Hazi Abdul Kader Khan.

Dr Mozibur Rahman came forward as the Acting Principal, and on 8^th September, 2008, the college began its auspicious journey. With seven teachers and only one non-teaching employee, the very first batch comprising only 63 students began its classes in the premises of Hariharpara High School. Within one year, the institution got its own building. Though contribution of innumerable number of donors of the locale was no less beneficent, the college building was quite impossible without the generous grant from the MLA Local Area Development Fund of Mr. Insar Ali Biswas, the then MLA, Hariharpara. In 2013, Dr. Prabhas Chandra Samanta became the Acting Principal and served the college till 2016. In 2016 and 2017, a number of full time Assistant Professors recommended by the West Bengal College Service Commission joined the college. In 2019, the Governing Body presided by Mr. Hatemul Islam was formed. On 7^th July, 2021, Dr. Goutam Kumar Ghosh joined as the very first Principal of the college.

Affiliated to the University of Kalyani, Hazi A. K. Khan College now aspires to function as a centre for higher studies. With a team of thirty four teaching and ten non-teaching facilitators, the college responsibly and happily takes care of almost 1558 students recently (2021). The HAKKC Family hopes that the number of both students and teaching and non-teaching staff will increase soon, and the environment of the college will be far more education-oriented. The current MLA, Mr. Niamot Sheikh, promisingly patronises the college. The more the institution prospers in all respect, the more the dream of those people, especially of Hazi A. K. Khan, who took the initiative to establish this college, will be fulfilled.