Former Mayor Shanti Desai cremated

New Delhi, May 30 (UNI) Former Delhi Mayor and ex-chairman of the MCD standing committee, Shanti Desai, who died at Ahmedabad yesterday, was cremated here today.

Mr Desai's nephew Rajiv lit the pyre.

Thousands of people paid their tributes to the departed leader.

Prominent among those present at the cremation of Desai were senior BJP leader and former Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishan Advani, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, former Delhi Chief Minister Madan Lal Khurana, former Mayors of Delhi, Satbir Singh, Yogdhyan Ahuja, Shakuntala Arya, Anita Arya, Meera Kanwaria, former Deputy Mayors, Mahesh Chand Sharma, Mahinder Singh Chaudhary, Rajesh Gehlot and DPCC chief Ram Babu Sharma, former Union Ministers, Sahib Singh Verma and Shahnawaz Hussain, leader of the opposition in the Delhi assembly Jagdish Mukhi, Delhi pradesh BJP president Harshvardhan, former MPs Vijay Goel and Kirti Azad, MLAs Karan Singh Tanwar, Puran Chand Yogi and Poornima Sethi.

Earlier, Delhi Mayor Farhad Suri, Chairman of the MCD standing committee Jai Kishan Sharma, Leader of the MCD house Jitender Kochar, Leader of the Opposition In the MCD Subhash Arya, Standing committee member Vijender Gupta, Chairman of the Appointment Committee Brij Mohan Sharma and municipal councillor Aarti Mehra and Municipal commissioner Ashok Kumar Nigam paid floral tributes to Desai at Ghanta Ghar, Chandni Chowk.

Many other present and former Councillors belonging to the BJP and Congress also paid floral tributes.

They also accompanied the procession from Khari Baoli upto Nigam Bodh Ghat.

As a mark of respect to Desai, all offices of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi remained closed for half day so as to enable municipal employees and officers to pay their tributes to Desai.

The mortal remains of Desai, who passed away yesterday at Ahmedabad, were were brought to Delhi last night.

Leader of the Opposition in the MCD from 1983 to 1990, Desai earlier remained Chairmen of Works and Education Committee from the year 1973 onwards.

After a gap of seven years when MCD was constituted again after supercession, Desai was elected as Chairman of the Standing Committee on April 28, 1997 and remained on this post upto April 19, 2000. Thereafter, he was elected as Mayor of Delhi and remained on this post upto March 31, 2002.

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