Finance and Parliamentary Affairs Minister of Uttarakhand Prakash Pant who lost his battling cancer was cremated with full State honours at Pithorgarh on Saturday. Amid slogans of ‘long live Prakash Pant’, the mortal remains of the popular minister were consigned to flames at Rameshwar Ghat of Pithoragarh on Saturday afternoon.
Earlier in the day, the body of Pant who lost his fight with lung cancer on Wednesday in America was flown in at Dehradun airport, Jollygrant in a special air ambulance.
His mortal remains were kept at the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), building Jollygrant for two hours. Here the chief minister of Uttarakhand Trivendra Singh Rawat, speaker of Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha, Premchandra Agarwal, Urban development minister Madan Kaushik, forest minister Harak Singh Rawat, education Minister Arvind Pandey, transport minister Yashpal Arya, agriculture minister Subodh Uniyal, minister of higher education and cooperative development Dhan Singh Rawat, Minister of state for Women and child development Rekha Arya, Member of parliament from Garhwal, Teerath Singh Rawat, state congress President Pritam Singh, BJP chief Ajay Bhatt, leader of opposition in state assembly, Indira Hridayesh and large number of leaders and other people offered floral tribute to the departed leader.
From Jollygrant the body of Prakash Pant was flown to Naini Saini Airport of Pithoragarh in a special plane. The CM of Uttarakhand Trivendra Singh Rawat accompanied the body of the minister to his home district. In Pithoragarh, the mortal remains were kept at Dev Singh ground for people to pay their last respects.
Here Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhariyal ‘Nishank’, Union minister Ashwini Chaubey and Rajya Sabha MP Anil Baluni offered their tributes. Thousands of people gathered at the ground to have a glimpse of their beloved leader.
Later the body was transported to the parental house of Pant in Khadkot area.
The business establishments and the educational institutes in Pithoragarh town and nearby areas remained closed as mark of respect to the departed leader.