Ahead of Uttarakhand poll, PM lays stone for Rs 400-cr projects

Shubhadeep Choudhury

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 5

Citing the upcoming Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said it was now possible for one to make a mental picture of the cultural practices prevalent in ancient India.

Migration from hills will stop

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The growing network of homestays in Uttarakhand will create livelihood opportunities for locals at their homes and stop migration from the hills by the youth in search of employment. — Narendra Modi, Prime Minister

He predicted a decade of development for Uttarakhand and an end to migration from the hills, as he inaugurated a rebuilt samadhi of Adi Shankaracharya in Kedarnath and unveiled Shankaracharya’s statue.

The samadhi was destroyed in the devastating floods that had hit Uttarkhand in 2013.

Addressing a gathering of priests and devotees, he said the redevelopment of centres of faith in India shows the country’s growing pride in its ancient saints and philosophers like Adi Guru Shankaracharya and Swami Vivekananda. A grand Ram temple is being built in Ayodhya to restore its glory after centuries while the work on the Vishwanath Dham project in Kashi is nearing completion, the PM said.

He also inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of reconstruction projects worth over Rs 400 crore at Kedarnath in Uttarakhand where the Assembly elections are just a few months away.

A Buddhist circuit is being developed by connecting Buddhist sites at Sarnath and Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh and Bodh Gaya in Bihar. Similarly, centres of faith associated with Lord Ram are also being connected and developed into an integrated circuit, the PM said. The PM added that work was going on to link the Kedarnath Temple site by cable car with last point of the existing motorway.