KAZIRANGA SAMANWAY KSHETRA (Dergaon), Feb 7 - �Formed with seven followers of Srimanta Sankardeva in 1930, the Srimanta Sankardeva Sangha (SSS) has now become the largest socio-religious organisation in the North-east. Earlier it expanded from Sadiya to Coocbehar, but now it has crossed the boundary of India also and has reached London too. At present, no negative force can affect the SSS .� This was stated by the Padadhikar (chief) of SSS Kamala Kanta Gogoi after hoisting the flag in the morning on Friday.
Gogoi also urged all the devotees gathered at the flag hoisting site here to be united under the flag to make the Assamese nation great in the truest sense.
His speech was followed by a 16-km-long cultural procession. Led by a special structure known as �Hamsa yaan� of the epic Mahabharat. That was followed by a separate vehicle with the Padadhikar Kamala Kanta Gogoi, minister Atul Bora, president and secretary of the reception committee (RC) Dharmeswar Hazarika and Chandra Kanta Bhuyan, general secretary of SSS Babul Bora.
The procession with 72 cultural troupes demonstrating different religious, cultural, social phenomena was participated by as many as 10,000 people comprising different castes, communities and religions.
After the procession, an open meeting was held with the Padadhikar Kamala Kanta Gogoi in the chair which was inaugurated by the chief adviser of SSS Bhabendra Nath Deka. Lakhs of people attended the open meeting.
Taking part in the meeting, State Finance Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the SSS was the only guiding light in the State. �Any one coming to an SSS meeting should always come as a devotee, not as a political or social worker. So there is no need to colour the SSS as a platform of politicians�, he said.
He urged the adviser of AASU Dr Samujjal Bhattacharyya to come clear on the point of invitation of political leaders to any meeting.
Disclosing that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sent his best wishes to the SSS session, the minister urged the gathering to be united under the Sangha.
The minister also declared a financial assistance of Rs 10 lakh each to the 56 schools managed by the SSS.
Taking part as a distinguished guest, noted journalist Prasanta Rajguru said that the SSS is a disciplined organisation. �It leads the society following the philosophy of Sankar-Madhab�, he said.
Delivering his speech as an invited guest Shyamkanu Mahanta said that Sankardeva was a great social engineer and also a great artiste. Earlier, the general secretary of the SSS Babul Bora read out the secretarial reports of all the branch committees of SSS. Several awards were also given away in the meeting.
The altar made for the flag hoisting by artiste Gopal Bora (Kolamani) in the design of a lotus with a height of 11 feet with seven steps was the main attraction of the audience. The mini Kaziranga made just by the main entrance was liked by all and was a good vehicle to disseminate the message for environment conservation. A book fair was also held which was attended to by a large gathering on Friday. But the book sellers here resented the mismanagement of the Book fair Sub-committee.
