THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The government has declared a seven-day state mourning as a mark of respect to former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, who died on Thursday. The public administration department has announced that all official programmes have been cancelled.
The information and public relations department has announced that an official state mourning has been declared from December 26 to January 1. The national flag will be flown at half-mast. The government also announced that district collectors have been directed to instruct the concerned officials to lower the flag at places where the national flag is tied in the state.
The union cabinet meeting chaired by the Prime Minister yesterday passed a resolution condoling the death of Manmohan Singh. A seven-day national mourning has been declared till January 1. The national flag will be flown at half-mast on those days, including in foreign embassies. Today is a half-day holiday for all central government offices and central public sector undertakings.
Manmohan Singh died on Thursday while undergoing treatment at AIIMS. The body was shifted to his residence on Motilal Road that night itself. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Lok Sabha opposition leader Rahul Gandhi and AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal, who landed in Delhi at 2 am from Belgaum in Karnataka, went straight to the house of the former prime minister. After paying their respects to him, they consoled his relatives. Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP President J P Nadda had reached the hospital at night.
Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav, Aam Aadmi Party Convener Arvind Kejriwal and others were also present. Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul, Priyanka, K C Venugopal, Ramesh Chennithala, V D Satheesan, Jairam Ramesh, M K Raghavan, Adoor Prakash and others were at Manmohan's residence since yesterday morning.