If media workers come forward in social work alongside publishing news, society will move further ahead, Tangail's additional deputy commissioner Abdullah Al Mamun said. The media's role in protecting the environment is immense, he said: the more aware people become, the more the environment will improve, and if media workers take on the task of raising that awareness, improvement will come quickly.

He was speaking as chief guest at a tree-planting programme in the Dhaka-Tangail four-lane highway area on Sunday (23 February). The Federal Reporters Society is carrying out the programme with the support of Gulf Oil. As part of its social responsibility to protect the environment and beautify the road, the organisation is planting 1,000 trees of various species along both sides of the highway.

Tangail additional superintendent of police Md Sohel Rana and Gulf Oil managing director Amlan Mitra spoke as special guests. Md Jahidul Islam, sub-divisional engineer of the Roads and Highways Department, sub-assistant engineer Khairul Islam and Tangail Press Club president Jafar Ahmed also spoke.

The programme was conducted by Tangail Press Club joint secretary Kazi Tajuddin Ripon and presided over by Ferdous Mamun, president of the Federal Reporters Society and chief news editor of Global TV. The society's general secretary Jahidul Islam Shishir gave the opening address, and the welcome address was given by the organisation's organising secretary Mostafa Kamal (Sumon Pramanik), editor of Dainik Nagorik Sangbad, and joint secretary Sajid Sarkar.

Gulf Oil managing director Amlan Mitra said Gulf Oil is always sincere about protecting and improving the natural environment. "We follow environment-friendly processes in making lubricants, but beyond that we have a responsibility to do something bigger. This is our social responsibility. We are happy to be partners in the tree-planting programme organised by the Federal Reporters Society. Our aim is not just to plant trees but to send a message: we must all protect the environment together, and no single organisation or institution can fulfil this responsibility to nature," he said.

Speakers thanked the Federal Reporters Society for the programme to protect the environment. Society president Ferdous Mamun gave the closing address.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.