HYDERABAD/NEW DELHI: Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy will be given a state funeral on Friday while the national flag will fly at half mast in Delhi and all state capitals on Thursday and Friday, the government announced.
Information and broadcasting minister Ambika Soni told reporters after a cabinet meeting here that the tricolour would also fly at half mast all over Andhra Pradesh in tribute to the chief minister who died in a helicopter crash on Wednesday.
His body was found on Thursday morning in a dense forest in Kurnool district where the accident took place in bad weather.
All central government offices in Andhra Pradesh will remain shut on Friday, Soni added.
Thursday's cabinet meeting, presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, observed a two-minute silence in memory of the chief minister.
The body of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, who was killed in a helicopter crash, will be brought to Hyderabad from Kurnool by 5 pm, finance minister K Rosaiah said on Thursday.
Rosaiah told reporters here that an autopsy will be conducted on all the five bodies that were found in the Nallamalla forests in Kurnool district.
The 60-year-old chief minister, popularly known as YSR, was going from Hyderabad to Chittoor, 588 km away, for a mass contact programme when his helicopter went missing in bad weather around 9.30 am on Wednesday in the dense forest range.
Flying with YSR, who this May steered the Congress to a second stint in power, were his principal secretary P Subramaniam, chief security officer ASC Wesley and pilots Group Captain SK Bhatia and Captain MS Reddy.
>>>All the five bodies were charred beyond recognition," Rosaiah said. He added that there was a possibility that "there was a fire" after the crash.
After being brought to Hyderabad, YSR's body will be taken to the chief minister's camp office in Begumpet. The bodies of the other four people would be taken to their respective native places.
The chief minister’s body will be kept at the Lal Bahadur stadium in Hyderabad from 10 am Friday to enable people to pay their last respects.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi and several union ministers are expected to arrive here tomorrow.
On Friday, at 1 pm, YSR's body will be taken to Pulivendula, his native town in Kadapa district, where he will be cremated with state honours.
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