Manmohan, wife attend Singla’s last rites; Punjab CM, ministers absent

New Delhi, June 29 : The entire Punjab cabinet, including Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, was conspicuous by its absence at the last rites of late state finance minister Surinder Singla here on Friday morning.The rites took place at the Lodhi crematorium and the highest ranking official from the Punjab government was the state resident commissioner Rakhi Bhandari. She laid a wreath on the behalf of the state government. Present, however, was former prime minister Manmohan Singh and wife Gursharan Kaur, who led the condolences for Singla on Thursday by sending a personal note to the late leader’s wife.Singh termed the loss as sad and added that the services of Singla would be remembered by the party, the nation and the people of Punjab.Former L-G of Puduchery Virendra Kataria, who attended the cremation, told The Tribune, “It is unfortunate that no one from the state cabinet found the time to attend the last rites of Surinder Singla who steered Punjab’s finances at a very critical time and was a successful finance minister.”An SP-level officer laid a wreath on the behalf of the state DGP.Among others who attended were ex MPs Gurcharan Dadhahoor and Iqbal Singh.Personal friends of Singla, including MLAs Rana Sodhi and Tript Rajinder Bajwa, were also absent.There was no representation either from AICC or state Congress organisation either.