SIVASAGAR, April 26 - The last rites of former Revenue Minister and ex-Governor of Bihar and Tripura, Debananda Konwar was performed this morning at his ancestral village at Nitaipukhuri Konwar Gaon with full state honours.
Minister of State for Revenue and Disaster Management (independent charge) Jogen Mohan offered floral tributes on behalf of the Chief Minister. Others who offered tributes were Jorhat MP Topon Kumar Gogoi, Rajya Sabha MP Kamakhya Prasad Tasa, Thowra MLA Kushal Duwori, former MLA Sushanta Borgohain, Sivasagar Deputy Commissioner Lakhinandan Gogoi, Sivasagar additional deputy commissioners Mun Gogoi and Junmoni Sonowal, Demow RCO Indika Gogoi and a host of other dignitaries.
After three rounds were fired into the air soon after the tribute-paying ceremony, Konwar�s son Palash performed the last rites prior to consigning his father�s body to the flames.
There was a huge gathering of local villagers along with former party followers at the funeral site.
Earlier, Konwar�s body was brought from his Rukminigaon-based residence in Guwahati yesterday where he died at the age of 88.
Born in 1932 at Rajah Ali Tea Estate in Tinsukia where his father Padma Konwar worked, his mother was Kusum Kumari Konwar. He did his primary education from Nitaipukhuri, about 35 kms from Sivasagar town.
Devananda Konwar was the eldest of three brothers and six sisters. Konwar had his school education in Khowang as his father was an employee with Khowang Tea Estate. He passed the matriculation examination from Khowang High School in 1st division and then graduated from Cotton College and went on to become a post-graduate from Delhi University.
Konwar began his career as an English teacher in Cotton College, Guwahati and later joined as marketing executive with a private company in Mumbai before coming back to Assam to start a degree college in Guwahati as its founder principal.
In 1969, Konwar joined Gauhati High Court as a lawyer. Konwar subsequently joined the Congress party in 1955 as a student leader and was elected to the State Assembly from Sivasagar constituency in 1983 during the peak of the Assam Agitation.
Later, he was re-elected from Thowra constituency on three consecutive occasions from 1991 to 2001. Konwar held various positions in the Congress party in the district and the state level. He was a senior Congress leader and was a Cabinet Minister in the Hiteswar Saikia government in 1991 and later was the Law and Revenue Minister in the Tarun Gogoi government in 2001.
However, at the fag end of his career, Konwar joined AIUDF, surprising many in the political circles.
Earlier, Konwar was appointed as Governor of Bihar and Tripura with additional charge of West Bengal for a period of two months.
