Delhi civic body begins preparation for last rites

With the formal announcement of the demise of former Prime Minister and BJP stalwart Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC) has started to prepare for the last rites of the leader to be held around 4 pm at Rashtriya Smriti Sthal, Vijay Ghat in the national Capital.

“As per directions from the Ministry of Defence, NMC has started making arrangements for last rites near Vijay Ghat. Further, proper sanitation would also be maintained en-route,” a release issued by the corporation said.

In a medical bulletin released by All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) it stated, “It is with profound grief that we inform about the sad demise of former Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee at 5:05pm today. Vajpayee was admitted in AIIMS on June 11 and was stable in the last 9 weeks under the care of a team of AIIMS doctors.

 “Unfortunately, his condition deteriorated over the last 36 hours and he was put on life support systems. Despite the best of efforts, we have lost him today. We join the Nation in deeply mourning this great loss,” a release issued by AIIMS stated.

Vajpayee was suffering from urinary tract infection, lower respiratory tract infection and kidney problems.

Earlier in the day after news of his deteriorated health condition sprayed, political bigwigs like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, senior BJP leaders L K Advani, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, Rajnath Singh, JP Nadda, party president Amit Shah, Shahnawaj Hussain, Manoj Tiwari, Anurag Thakur, Vijay Goyal, Udit Rai, Prakash Javedkar, Harsh Vardhan, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ram Vilas Paswan from Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah and chief ministers of various states visited AIIMS to enquire about his health.