Team Herald
PANJIM: Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar who arrived from USA via Mumbai at the same time as the ashes of late Prime Minister late Atal Bihari Vajpayee at the Dabolim airport carried the an urn of the ashes along with Union Ayush Minister Shripad Naik, South Goa M P Narendra Sawaikar and State BJP President Vinay Tendulkar.
The ashes of Late Vajpayee will be immersed in the Rivers Mandovi and Zuari on Friday. Parrikar will immerse the ashes in the Mandovi, while in Zuari it will be done by South Goa MP Narendra Sawaikar. The immersion will be done on August 24 evening.
Sources from the party said that Naik and Tendulkar had landed a little earlier from Delhi, bringing with them two urns with the ashes for immersion and waited at the airport until Parrikar landed.
“The ashes will be kept at party head office, so that party workers and others can pay their tribute. He was a great leader and many would like to pay their tribute to him,” BJP State general secretary Sadanand Tanawade said.
On Thursday and Friday, the state unit has organised a Kalash Yatra which will move across all the talukas before the immersion. “We have tried to cover as many constituencies as possible. In North Goa, the ashes will be immersed in the Mandovi near Panjim ferry point, while in South it would be in Zuari at Cortalim ferry point,” Tanawade said.
The two rivers are amongst those 97, across country, where Vajpayee’s ashes would be immersed. The other 95 rivers are in Uttar Pradesh (22), Uttarakhand (3), Bihar (7), Gujarat (4), Odishsa (7), Assam (2), West Bengal (2), Delhi (1), Punjab (3), Telangana (2), Rajasthan (2), Madhya Pradesh (4), Kerala (1), Andhra Pradesh (4), Jammu and Kashmir (2), Sikkim (1), Karnataka (8), Tamil Nadu (8), Himachal Pradesh (2), Daman (1) and Maharashtra (9).
The senior BJP leader died on August 16. Political leaders across various parties had paid rich tribute to the leader.
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CM Parrikar returns from United States
PANJIM: Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Wednesday returned to Goa from the United States of America (USA) where he had gone for a medical check-up.
Parrikar, who had undergone a three-month long treatment for a pancreatic ailment at a hospital in the United States earlier, had taken another trip to that country on August 10 for a follow-up.
He landed at the Dabolim airport on Wednesday evening. As he emerged from the airport, he was accompanied by Union AYUSH minister Shripad Naik and BJP State President Vinay Tendulkar.
Sources from the party said that Naik and Tendulkar had landed a little earlier from Delhi, bringing with them two urns containing the ashes of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for immersion and had waited at the airport until Parrikar landed.
Parrikar had first gone to the US for treatment in the first week of March, and returned in the last week of June.
The urns containing Vajpayee’s ashes will be kept at the BJP headquarters where party workers can pay their respects to the departed leader.
