A procession led by West Bengal minister of state for Sports, Laxmi Ratan Shukla demanded that Bharat Ratna be given to Kishore Kumar posthumously for his immense contribution to music.
Shukla said, "We have already approached the Centre regarding this."
The Salkia Kishore Kumar Memorial Cultural Association took out the procession from Esplanade area in the metropolis to Salkia in Howrah town in the morning.
Music composer Bappi Lahiri, popular Bollywood singer Abhijeet Bhattacharya and Kumar Sanu sang "Happy Birthday to dear Kishoreda" along with Tollywood superstar Prosenjit Chatterjee at a function at Science City tonight.
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A giant cake was cut on the occasion to mark Kishore Kumar's 88th birthday.
"Together we had worked for over a decade," Lahiri said and sang the "Asha Bhalobasa" track.
Singers Abhijeet and Sanu jointly sang "zindagi ka safar...". "Our so-called rivalry was a creation of media," Abhijeet and Sanu said.
In various places of the city local fan clubs organised functions to pay tributes to Kishore Kumar.