Union Minister Sis Ram Ola dead

The 86 year old leader passed away this morning

Union Labour and Employment Minister Sis Ram Ola died at a Gurgaon hospital on Sunday after a prolonged illness. The 86-year-old Congress leader from Rajasthan had been suffering from various ailments for some time and was “chronically ill”, sources in Medanta Medicity said.

Ola breathed his last at 3.40 am. He had undergone an eye surgery and an intestine operation at the hospital, where he was admitted since November, his family said. The Jat leader is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.

Ola was cremated later in the evening at his native village in Jhunjhunu district of Rajasthan.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed grief at his demise. The Union Cabinet, of which Ola was a member since June 17 this year, will meet at the prime minister’s residence to mourn his death.

Condoling his demise, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and former chief minister Ashok Gehlot said, “Ola’s death has created a vacuum in state politics”.

A recipient of the Padma Shri award in 1968, Ola started girls education in a remote area in rural Rajasthan with three girls in the school known as Indira Gandhi Balika Niketan Ardawata in 1952.

Born on 30 July, 1927, Ola represented the Jhunjhunu constituency of Rajasthan in the Lok Sabha and was a member of the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly from 1957 to 1990, and was a Cabinet minister from 1980 to 1990 in the Government of Rajasthan.