President arrives in Doon for a sojourn

Dehradun, September 27

President Pranab Mukherjee arrived here today for a quiet sojourn during which he will pay obeisance at the Himalayan shrine of Kedarnath and take part in the Ganga aarti at Har ki Pauri in Haridwar.

The President began his visit to the hill state with the inauguration of the renovated ‘Rasthrapati Ashiana’, the President’s retreat in the city, refurbished with laying of new lawns, planting of hedges and ornamental plants comprising flowering trees and herbs.

Accompanied by Governor KK Paul and a host of senior officials, Mukherjee planted a Rudrakasha sapling on the Ashiana premises and then was shown around its renovated building built originally as bungalow of the Commandant of the President’s Bodyguard and being revived at Mukherjee’s initiative after long years of disuse.

KR Narayanan was the last president who stayed here in March 1998.

The commandant’s bungalow was built in 1920 and then renovated and re-designated as Rashtrapati Ashiana in 1975-76 to provide a suitable summer retreat to the then President of India Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed as an alternative to Shimla.

Mukherjee, who will stay at ‘Rashtrapati Ashiana’ for the entire duration of his visit, will attend a dinner hosted by Governor KK Paul this evening where distinguished residents of the city have been invited.

He will go to Kedarnath tomorrow morning at around 8.25 am and will return to Dehradun in the afternoon.

The President will visit Haridwar on September 29 to witness its famous Ganga aarti before leaving for Delhi the same evening.

It will be Mukherjee’s first visit to Kedarnath after assuming office as the President and after the 2013 deluge which killed thousands of people besides inflicting large-scale damage on areas adjoining the centuries old shrine tucked in the Himalayas.

Earlier in June this year, Mukherjee had to return without paying obeisance at the shrine when his helicopter could not land there due to the bad weather.

The President’s proposed visit to Kedarnath in April 2015 had also been cancelled due to heavy snowfall at the Himalayan shrine.

Earlier, as the President arrived at the Jollygrant airport, he was accorded a warm welcome by Governor KK Paul, Chief Minister Harish Rawat, Chief Secretary Shatrughna Singh and DGP MA Ganpati.

After the President’s arrival at Ashiana he was given a demonstration by representatives of Prashak Techno Enterprises, who have done extensive work in the field of building and sanitation in Thailand using cost effective disaster resistant technology.

Called Habitech-Nivara Tantra technology in which compacted inter-meshing blocks each weighing about 6 kg are used instead of bricks to build houses, they advocated its adoption for building houses in the disaster-prone hill areas of Uttarakhand.

Security has been tightened across the city in view of the President’s visit with the deployment of around 2,400 policemen including those from the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) and the fire department. — PTI