ranchi pranab mukherjee became the first president of free india to visit the 162yearold audrey house in ranchi that served as the residence of british lieutenant governors of bengal in the 19th century he inaugurated the multidisciplinary art gallery in the building on saturday mukherjee who was accompanied by chief minister raghubar das governor droupadi murmu art and culture minister amar bauri and education minister neera yadav was greeted by tribal dance and beats of mandar drum and bher flute he spent some time visiting the galleries where paintings and sculptures by renowned artists from the state have been put on display the president later laid the foundation for jharkhand university of technology at namkum by pressing a button from the audiovisual hall of the heritage building education minister yadav said the technical university is important as the state is lagging behind the national average in terms of according technical education to its students the state government has already allocated rs 81 crore for construction of the university building which we plan to complete within 24 months she added audrey house which is near the chief ministers residence was converted into a fortress for the hourlong programme and bystanders trying to have a glimpse of the president were disappointed ajay kumar secretary to the department of technical and higher education said our chief minister wanted things to be in place on time and within a month we could finalise the venue for the university and got the foundation stone laid by none other than the president he said