PTI, MUMBAI: Bollywood diva Sridevi was accorded a state funeral on the directions from Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s office, as per the reply to a query under the Right to Information Act. Anil Galgali, a city-based RTI activist, had sought to know from the state’s General Administration Department (GAD) the details of the state funeral accorded to Sridevi, and who is authorised to permit this honour.
The GAD said the power to grant state funeral for a person lies with the chief minister. Regarding Sridevi’s funeral, a verbal order was received from the chief minister’s office on February 25, and
it was conveyed to the Mumbai suburban collector and Mumbai police commissioner by a government order on February 26, said the GAD’s reply. In the last six years, 41 persons were granted state
funeral in the state, it said. They included former chief ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh and A R Antulay, Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray, Vipassana Guru Satyanarayan Goenka and Dawoodi Bohra community’s spiritual head Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin.
Brijesh Singh, Director General of DGIPR, the state government’s publicity wing, said there are rules as to who should get a state funeral, and the chief minister can use his discretion in the matter.
