Zubeen Fan Club launches 40,000 Nahar saplings drive across Sivasagar

Sivasagar, Oct 13: To keep alive the memory of their soul-stirring guiding angel, singing legend, actor, filmmaker, and social activist Zubeen Garg, who passed away under mysterious circumstances in Singapore on September 19 last, the Zubeen Fan Club (ZFC), Sivasagar committee on Sunday launched their 40,000 Nahar sapling plantation mission on the western bank of the historic Jaysagar Borpukhuri in the presence of hundreds of ZFC members and Zubeen admirers. The mission has envisaged to plant that many Nahar saplings in the premises of more than 520 historical monuments and relics lying across the Sivasagar district.

Undertaken as part of the #Justice for Zubeen Garg campaign, the plantation was ceremoniously inaugurated by the chairman of the Urban Sewage Board and former MLA Kushal Duwori, social worker Hari Prasanna Hazarika, Zubeen Garg’s uncle Manoj Kumar Borthakur, and ZFC president Rimpul Deori.

Rishikesh Duwora and Manoshjyoti Dutta, joint secretaries, ZFC, explained the objectives of the organization to re-green Assam to turn Zubeen’s dream into a reality. Rishikesh, with tears in his eyes, said that Zubeen expressed his wishes to inaugurate the Nahar plantation programme himself during his last visit to the historic town, but that did not happen.

The ZFC will now plant 40,000 Nahar saplings – in sync with the number of songs he had sung during his illustrious career – around all these historical places and relics, which will be the sincerest tribute to the man who wanted to see a green and clean Assam. Manoj Kumar Borthakur, when asked by the media, said that Zubeen wanted to grow tall like a Nahar tree and wanted all his fan followers to grow like that to take the State ahead. “We must do our part to fulfil his dreams – the million dreams of the new generation,” he said.

Call to boycott Shyamkanu Mahanta: Meanwhile, the Asomiya Yuva Mancha, Sivasagar unit, and Sangrami Sena Asom, two leading social organizations, have called for a social boycott of Shyamkanu Mahanta and his family here in his hometown due to his alleged role in pushing the iconic singer Zubeen Garg to death in mysterious circumstances in the sea off Singapore.

The organisations’ presidents, Jadov Gogoi and Pankaj Khound, respectively, told this correspondent that Zubeen’s death in such circumstances cannot be taken lightly, and Mahanta as the chief of the event management team neglected his prime responsibility of protecting the singing legend, and it is a blot on the cultural heritage of Sivasagar and Konwarpur from where Mahanta hail.

Both organisations organised rallies also in the town demanding a speedy trial of the main accused, Shyamkanu Mahanta and Siddharth Sharma in the Zubeen Garg death case.

Correspondent