Bengaluru: The mortal remains of veteran Congress leader and former Union minister C.K.Jaffer Sharief were on Monday laid to rest with full state honours at the Khuddussab burial ground here. Sharief, 85, died at a private hospital here Sunday following a cardiac arrest.
Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, along with Congress in-charge for Karnataka K.C. Venugopal, paid their last respects. Earlier, the body was kept at the Masjid-E-Qhadria for prayers and at the KPCC office to enable people to pay their last respects. Sharief, a seven-time MP, served as railway minister in the Narasimha Rao government and is widely credited with turning the Railways around.
Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, former CM Siddaramaiah and Assembly Speaker Ramesh Kumar with the mortal remains.
Former Union Minister, C. K. Jaffer Sharief, was buried with full state honours next to his sons and his wife at the Quddus Sahib Eidgah in the city on Monday .Sharief, 85, died at a private hospital here Sunday following a cardiac arrest. Chief Minister H. D. Kumaraswamy, Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and M. Mallikarjuna Kharge, the Congress' Karnataka in-charge, K. C. Venugopal, former Chief Minister, Siddarmaiah and several state leaders paid their last respects to him at the burial ground.
Political leaders including Deputy CM Dr G, Parameshwar pay their tribute to the departed leader.
Earlier the body was kept for prayers at the Masjid-E-Khadriya and later taken to the office of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee where it was received by KPCC president, Dinesh Gundu Rao in the presence of Mr Azad and other Congress leaders. A stream of people paid their last respects to him before it was taken to the Quddus Sahib Eidgah for burial.
Sharief, a seven-time Lok Sabha member, was a staunch loyalist of the late Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi and had served as the railway minister in the P. V. Narasimha Rao government between 1991 and 1995.
Sharief was a leader with mass appeal. Elected to the fifth Lok Sabha in 1971 from Kanakapura constituency in Karnataka, he was returned to Parliament by the people of Bengaluru (North) Parliamentary constituency for a record seven times. His serving in Parliament for a eight terms is a record, which only a few can match in Indian politics.
During his long tenure in parliament, he was associated with various standing and consultative committees of different ministries. With the return of the Congress to power in June 1991, he was made Railways Minister, a post he held till October 1995. His ambitious Unigauge project aimed at elimination of multi-gauge bottlenecks in the railway system and enhancement of faster/higher carrying capacity immensely contributed to the Indian Railway's turnaround.
His visionary leadership helped backward regions of the country join the mainstream and made the vast railway network a profitable venture. During his stint as Railway Minister, Karnataka was a big beneficiary as he was instrumental in the establishment of a new railway zone in the state, the South Western Railway, a Rail Wheel Factory (formerly Wheel and Axle plant], an Inland Container Depot in Whitefeld, a Railway Terminal Board, and in developing the Yeshwanthpur Railway Station as Bengaluru's third railway terminal.
