Balladeer Gaddar laid to rest with state honours; thousands pay respect

Hyderabad: The final journey of ‘Balladeer Gaddar’ was conducted with full state honours at his family home in Mahaboodhi Vidyalaya Bhudevi Nagar at Alwal.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao participated in the event and paid his respects. “Gaddar will remain in the hearts of Telangana people for his folk songs which ignited the revolutionary movement among scores of people for achieving a separate state,” said KCR.

The state government engaged all departments, from police to municipal corporation, for the revolutionary poet’s final journey.

Gummadi Vittal Rao or Gaddar passed away at the age of 77 years on August 6. He was undergoing treatment at Apollo Spectra Hospital. He underwent a bypass surgery on August 3 and recovered from it. However, he developed lung and urinary ailments which aggravated with age and led to his demise.

Thousands gather for final glimpse

Gaddar’s body was kept at LB Stadium for people from all walks of life to come and pay their final respects. Politicians from all parties to Tollywood actors and other personalities queued up at LB Stadium to see the Telangana singer one last time.

Legislative Council chairman Gutta Sukhender Reddy, deputy chairman Dr Banda Prakash Mudiraj and Council chief whip MS Prabhakar paid tributes along with many other ministers and leaders. Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president Revanth Reddy, senior Congress party leader Ponnala Laxmiah and many others paid their tribute to the people’s leader at LB Stadium.

Heavy traffic jam

Hyderabad’s traffic came to a standstill to accommodate the visits by the ministers, leaders and artists to the LB Stadium. Movements of vehicles were affected from Nampally to Masab Tank in the morning hours. When the procession turned towards Alwal in the afternoon, the roads in Begumpet, Secunderabad and Alwal areas began full of traffic.

“Due to the heavy flow of traffic, movement of vehicles is slow from Masab Tank, Mahaveer Hospital, PTI, Ayodhya Jn. towards Nirankari,” tweeted the police. Asif Nagar and Saifabad Traffic Police were deployed to ease traffic and avoid congestion.

The traffic police were at every junction as the funeral procession moved towards Alwal. There were lots of people on the road and this also hindered the movement of vehicles.