Prime Minister Pledges To Finish Khandu's Work

Singh and Sonia pay homage to late CM

Locals pay tribute to late Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu in Itanagar on Thursday. Khandu’s body was found at a mountainous site in northeast India after a massive air and ground search.

Itanagar, May 9 : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday pledged his government's full support in completing the "unfinished task and dream of all round development" of Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Dorjee Khandu, who was killed in a helicopter crash.

"Dorjee Khandu was a visionary and his untimely death is not just a loss for Arunachal Pradesh, but the nation as a whole and we, together with the support of the people here, are committed to realising the dream and the unfinished task of all-round development undertaken by him," the prime minister told journalists after paying homage to the late chief minister.

Manmohan Singh, accompanied by Home Minister P. Chidambaram and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, arrived in Itanagar and spent about 15 minutes with Khandu's family members. The three placed wreaths on Khandu's coffin.

The body of Khandu, 56, was flown to his home district of Tawang for his last rites to be performed on Wednesday according to Buddhist rituals.

"On the advice of the Buddhist lamas, the family would be performing his funeral rites with the burial taking place on May 11 in Tawang," Arunachal Pradesh MP Takam Sanjay said.

New CM sworn in

Khandu and four others, two pilots, a personal security officer, and the sister of the Tawang MLA, were killed in the crash last Saturday. The bodies were retrieved from the crash site at Lobotang near the 13,700 feet Sela Pass in Tawang district on Thursday after six days of intense search operation.

Senior Congress party leader Jarbom Gamlin was sworn in as the new chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh late on Thursday by Governor Gen (Retd) J.J. Singh at the Raj Bhavan here.

Although six names emerged, Gamlin, the power minister in the Khandu-led cabinet, got the nod from the Congress party president.