Tamil Nadu Governor K Rosaiah and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu are likely to attend the funeral of former President Abdul Kalam’s final rites at Rameshwaram in Chennai on July 30 at around 10.30 am.
The funeral will be conducted with State honours after giving a chance to the local people to offer their last respects to the departed soul on Wednesday. Naidu during a condolence meeting at Secretariat here called Kalam a real “Bharat Ratna”. He also stated that Kalam, a noble man sacrificed his life for the country by igniting the minds of youth and inspiring leaders like him. “His demise is a great loss to the nation and void created with his demise cannot be filled”, the Chief Minister observed.
It may be stated that Abdul Kalam collapsed while delivering a speech at IIM in Shillong on Monday night and the body was shifted to the national capital on Tuesday. On family members’ request, the Centre took a decision to conduct the funeral at Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu State.
The Tamil Nadu government was making arrangements for final rites. President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Ministers M Venkaiah Naidu, Bandaru Dattatreya and others, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejrival and leaders of various political parties and MPs of two Telugu States paid floral tributes to Kalam in Delhi on Tuesday. Bharat Ratna awardee UNR Rao also condoled the demise of Kalam with whom he associated for 40 years. A patriot and hard worker Kalam is inspiration to the posterity, he added. (NSS)