Sridevi given state honour on CM’s directions

A reply to the Right to Information reavealed that Bollywood diva Sridevi was accorded a state funeral on the directions from Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s office.

There was widespread speculation at that time as to how, Sridevi, a Padmashri awardee, was entitled for full state honours. A query under Right To Information Act was sought from the State Government by Anil Galgali for the person or department responsible for this decision.

“The Chief Minister has discretionary powers to confer the state honours for the funeral of any person. This too was a discretionary power of the Chief Minister,” said the note.

The state government has conferred full state honours for the cremation of 40 persons between June 22, 2012 to March 26, 2018.

RTI activist Galgali had sought information under the RTI Act 2005 from the Protocol department of the Maharashtra Government regarding the details of full state honours granted for Sridevi’s cremation and also authority for sanctioning it.

The Protocol Department comes under the General Administration Department, which is headed by the CM. The Protocol Department informed Galgali, “The granting of the full state honours for the cremation of any person was under the powers of the CM.”

With regards to the full state honours provided to Sridevi, a verbal order was received from the CM Office on February 25, and the same was conveyed to the Mumbai Suburban Collector and the Mumbai Police Commissioner via a government order dated, February 26, to conduct the same.

Galgali defended his decision to file this query. “Her cremation was conducted with full state honours which was discussed across various platforms, especially the social media platforms. This message of who gave the permission and is it allowed and under which rules was circulated. I felt it necessary to verify the reasons,” defended Galgali.