Uttarakhand Finance Minister Prakash Pant Passes Away; PM Modi, CM Rawat Tweet Condolences

New Delhi: Uttarakhand finance minister Prakash Pant breathed his last on Wednesday while undergoing treatment in the United States. He was 58 years old.

According to sources, he was undergoing treatment for a lung ailment for past few months. He went to United States in May for treatment.

Pant was Uttarakhand's minister for parliamentary affairs and finance besides being in charge of a host of other portfolios. He was a BJP MLA from Pithoragarh.

In February this year, Pant almost fainted twice while reading his budget speech in the state assembly. Though he was offered help, he couldn’t recover and the remaining budget portion was read out by CM Trivendra Singh Rawat.

Uttarakhand government has declared a three-day mourning and one-day state mourning tomorrow.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed condolences in Twitter. He wrote, “Anguished by the passing away of Uttarakhand’s Finance Minister Shri Prakash Pant. His organisational skills helped strengthen the BJP and administrative skills contributed to Uttarakhand’s progress. My thoughts are with his family and supporters. Om Shanti.”

Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat also expressed condolences. He described Pant as his ‘senior colleague’ with whom he had an association of three decades. “Pant’s death is a personal and irreparable loss to me,” tweeted Rawat.

"For me it is like losing a younger brother. The void created by his passing away will always hurt. His ability to respond to the sharpest of attacks by the opposition in the state assembly with a disarming smile will remain lodged in our memory forever. He played a great role in giving a direction to the development of the state after its creation. It is a great loss for the state and the BJP," Rawat said.

Pant was the first speaker of Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly. He has held the portfolios of tourism, culture, pilgrimage endowment, parliamentary affairs and reorganization, earlier.