Rajya Sabha mourns death of Munde, seven others

NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha today paid rich tributes to late Union Minister Gopinath Munde and seven others sitting and former members who passed away in the recent months.

Munde, a sitting member of Lok Sabha, died in a road mishap here on June 3 at the age of 65.

Born in December 1949, in Beed district of Maharashtra, he had also served as a member of the 15th and 16th Lok Sabha.

"In the passing away of Shri Gopinathrao Munde, the country has lost an able administrator and a distinguished parliamentarian," Ansari said in an obituary reference.

Ansari also mourned the death of Bhuvnesh Chaturvedi, who died in March at the age of 85.

Born in Mainpuri district of Uttar Pradesh, Chaturvedi was a representative of Press Trust of India (PTI) at Kota from 1957 to 1984.

Ansari also condoled the death of sitting member N Janardhana Reddy, who died on May 9 at the age of 79. He represented Andhra Pradesh in the House for three terms.

The House mourned the death of Bangaru Laxman, Khushwant Singh, Scato Swu, Adhik Shriodkar and R N Arya and observed silence as a mark of respect to the memory of the departed.