The Hindu : National : Jindal, Surender Singh cremated

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Saturday, Apr 02, 2005

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National

Jindal, Surender Singh cremated

By Our Special Correspondent

CHANDIGARH, APRIL 1. The State bid a tearful adieu to the Haryana Power Minister and industrialist, Om Prakash Jindal, and the Agriculture Minister, Surender Singh, at Hissar and Golagarh in Bhiwani district where their mortal remains were consigned to flames with full State honours.

A sea of humanity assembled at the Jindal Industrial Complex in Hissar since morning to attend the cremation. The pyre was lit by his eldest son, PrithviRaj Jindal.

O.P. Jindal was killed along with Surender Singh, in a helicopter crash near Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday. The two had joined the Congress Ministry led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda on March 10. The pilot of the ill-fated craft, T.S. Chauhan, who was also killed, was cremated in his native village, Sagga in Karnal district. His pyre was lit by his 17-year-old son, Tejesh. The body of Mr. Jindal was brought to Hissar yesterday and kept in the Jindal House to enable the people pay their last respects.

The body, draped in the National Flag, was kept in an open vehicle, which was decorated with flowers. The police personnel, with reversed weapons, were leading the vehicle.

Apart from the Haryana Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, his Cabinet colleagues and Congress MLAs and the AICC general secretary, Janardhan Dwivedi, joined the funeral procession, which passed through Jindal Chowk, Dabra Chowk, Tosham Road and ITI Chowk.

Union Ministers Shivraj Patil, Sunil Dutt, Selja and other Congress and Opposition leaders attended the cremation.Equally poignant scenes were witnessed in Bhiwani and Golagarh, the native village of the former Chief Minister, Bansi Lal, father of Surender Singh. A pall of gloom descended over the entire district regarded as the bastion of the Bansi Lal clan. People from all walks of life visited the residence of Mr. Bansi Lal to pay their last respects. The body reached Bhiwani from New Delhi by a special plane at 11.30 a.m.

Thousands of mourners vended their way to Golagarh to attend the solemn cremation ceremony which took place after 3.15 p.m. The Union Minister, Kapil Sibal, and the AICC general secretary, Ashok Gehlot, placed wreaths on behalf of the Prime Minister and the AICC president, Sonia Gandhi.

The pyre was lit by Surender Singh's nephew. The inconsolable Mr. Bansi Lal was accompanied by Mr. Hooda to the cremation ground. The Union Ministers, Shivraj Patil, Kamal Nath, Jagdish Tytler, Chief Ministers of Delhi and Punjab, Shiela Dikshit and Amarinder Singh, were present.

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