Shiv Sena pay Bal Thackeray's funeral bills

The Shiv Sena Thursday ended the controversy over its late chief Bal Thackeray's funeral expenses by handing over the billed amount to the municipal authorities concerned, an official said.

A top Shiv Sena functionary handed over a cheque of Rs500,000 on Thursday morning to the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai administration to cover the expenses incurred by the civic body in making arrangements for the public funeral at Shivaji Park Nov 18, last year, an official said.

Mumbai Mayor Sunil Prabhu, of the Shiv Sena, said in a statement late Wednesday that the party had agreed to bear all the expenses connected with the funeral.

He refuted recent reports suggesting that the civic body was attempting to burden the citizens of Mumbai by bearing the funeral expenses for the late Shiv Sena chief.

Around two million people attended Thackeray's funeral procession and cremation at Shivaji Park last year.

To ensure everything went off peacefully, the MCGM and Mumbai police had, at short notice, made massive arrangements like barricades, installing CCTVs at various locations en route to the funeral and at Shivaji Park, erecting giant LCD screens to enable all people view the ceremonies and other details.