Mountaineer laid to rest
The body of mountaineer Malli Mastan Babu was laid to rest here on Saturday, with people in large numbers attending the State funeral. Mastan died while trying to scale the Cerro Torre mountain, located between the borders of Argentina and Chile on March 23. Ministers Dr P Narayana, Palle Raghunath Reddy and Ravela Kishore Babu led the funeral procession, with police playing a band.
Nellore: The body of mountaineer Malli Mastan Babu was laid to rest here on Saturday, with people in large numbers attending the State funeral. Mastan died while trying to scale the Cerro Torre mountain, located between the borders of Argentina and Chile on March 23. Ministers Dr P Narayana, Palle Raghunath Reddy and Ravela Kishore Babu led the funeral procession, with police playing a band.
District Collector M Janaki and SP Gajarao Bhupal and other officials were present. A large number of students and youth participated in the funeral. The funeral procession started at 8 am from Mastan’s residence, where his body was kept for the public to pay their last respects since Friday evening. Leaders participating in the funeral said the State should honour Mastan in a befitting manner posthumously as he brought several laurels to Telugus by his outstanding feats in scaling high mountains and holding several world records.
Nellore MP Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy, his son Atmakur MLA Gowtham Reddy and Zilla Parishad chairman Bommineni Raghavendra said the national youth schemes should be named after Mastan Babu. Local legislators Anil Kumar Yadav and Kotamreddy Sridhar Reddy, expressing grief over Mastan’s death, said the State and the Central governments should honour him suitably. Former students of Korukonda Public School appealed to the Centre to honour Mastan Babu with Padma Bhushan.
