India's Lower House Speaker Killed in Helicopter Crash

Speaker of India's Lok Sabha, or Lower House of the Indian Parliament, G M C Balayogi, died in a helicopter crash in south India's Andhra Pradesh state on Sunday, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.

Quoting sources in the Speaker's Office here, the PTI said that the private helicopter in which Balayogi was traveling from Bhimavaram in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh crashed in a fish pond near Kaikalur in Krishna district.

The Speaker's gunman and additional private secretary on board and the helicopter pilot were also killed in the accident, the sources said.

The helicopter developed a technical snag after it took off from Bhimavaram at 7:45 a.m. on Sunday, the PTI said, giving no further details about the cause of the crash.

The speaker was in Andhra Pradesh to attend some local functions and had a busy day on Saturday, the PTI said, adding that Balayogi had earlier planned to travel by train but changed his mind.

The charred bodies of the speaker and other occupants of the helicopter have been shifted to the government hospital at Eluru town. The body of the speaker will be shifted to his Hyderabad residence later on Sunday to enable people to pay their last respects.

The funeral will be held at his home town Mummadivaram on Monday, the PTI quoted official sources as saying.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has convened a cabinet meeting at his official residence Sunday noon to condole the death of the Speaker.

(Xinhua News Agency March 3, 2002)