Ravuri Bharadhwaja, Jnanpith awardee who died of illness here on Friday, was laid to rest with full State honours here on Saturday.
People from different walks of life led by Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy visited the house of the literary luminary in Vijayanagar Colony here and paid their last respects to the departed soul. Mr. Reddy placed a wreath on the body of Ravuri Bharadhwaja and consoled the bereaved family members.
Earlier in the day, the Chief Minister directed Chief Secretary P.K. Mohanty to extend full State honours for the last rites of the well-known short story writer.
Among other who paid their last respects by visiting the body included TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu, BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya, Mandali Budha Prasad (Congress), D. Somayajulu and Konathala Ramakrishna (YSR Congress), Y. Venkateswara Rao (CPI-M) and others.
Later, the body placed in a decorated police van was taken in a procession to the graveyard in Asif Nagar. Family members, relatives and others participated in the last procession. Ravuri Bharadhwaja’s body was buried beside the grave of his wife. The police fired into the air as a mark of respect to the departed soul.
Meanwhile, Assembly Speaker Nandendla Manohar, CPI (M) State secretary B.V. Raghavulu, Lok Satta Party president Jayaprakash Narayan and AP Working Journalists Federation president B. Basava Punnaiah hailed Ravuri Bharadhwaja as a mine of literary knowledge and said his death was a huge loss to the Telugu literature field. In their condolence messages, they extended heartfelt sympathies with the bereaved family members.
