GUWAHATI, Sept 8 - The State today remembered the Bard of the Brahmaputra � music maestro Dr Bhupen Hazarika � on his 93rd birth anniversary.
The occasion was marked by various programmes across Assam besides Mumbai and some other places, as the people paid homage to their favourite singer-composer.
Among those who paid tributes to the Sudhakantha, also a Bharat Ratna, were Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, Union Minister of State for Food Processing Rameswar Teli and Cultural Affairs Minister Naba Kumar Doley, who visited the Dr Bhupen Hazarika Samadhi Kshetra at Jalukbari here in the morning.
In his address, the Chief Minister termed Dr Hazarika as the voice of humanity and said that each of his songs sent a message to society for strengthening the bond of unity and harmony.
�We must follow his ideals and try to make contributions towards development of the State and the country,� he said while speaking at the 93rd birth anniversary programme organised by the Cultural Affairs Directorate, Government of Assam at the Samadhi Kshetra.
Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for honouring the wish of the State�s people by posthumously conferring Bharat Ratna on Dr Hazarika, the Chief Minister said that Modi had been implementing schemes for making India one of the most developed countries in the world.
As in the previous years, the All Assam Students� Union (AASU) organised a special programme � Uddipana � on the bank of the Dighalipukhuri to offer tributes to the cultural icon.
The Dighalipukhuripar reverberated with the evergreen numbers of the maestro in the evening, with a host of singers rendering the songs one after the other.
The programme Uddipana is marked by rendition of Dr Hazarika�s numbers by a band of the best singers of colleges and universities from across the State.
Earlier in the morning, the AASU organised a homage-paying ceremony before the statue of the maestro at Dighalipukhuripar. It was attended among others by AASU president Dipanka Kumar Nath, general secretary Lurin Jyoti Gogoi and adviser Samujjal Bhattacharya.
