Final rites of former DPM Adhikari performed with state honor

KATHMANDU: Final rites of former Deputy Prime Minister Bharat Mohan Adhikari was performed at Aryaghat in Pashupati this afternoon with state honors.

Thousands of people, including ministers, leaders of various political parties, party cadres, and well-wishers gathered at Aryaghat to pay their last tributes to late Adhikari, who passed away on Saturday night while undergoing treatment at Hams Hospital in Dhumbarahi. He was suffering from pneumonia.

Late Adhikari’s daughters lit the funeral pyre.

An emergency meeting of the cabinet this morning had decided to perform late Adhikari’s final rites with state honors.

Adhikari, who had retired from active politics in 2014, had served as a Finance Minister during the nine-month tenure of the Man Mohan Adhikari-led government in September 1994. He had then championed the much-appraised reform campaign called “Afno Gaun Afai Banau” (Make your own village).

He also introduced ‘Old Age Allowance’ for Nepali senior citizens during the 1994-95 nine-month long communist government.

He served as finance ministers for four times. Adhikari is survived by his wife and three daughters.