Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who offered prayers in Kedarnath today, said he had rushed to the mountain shrine after the floods four years ago and offered to
As he laid the foundation stones for five reconstruction projects, Prime Minister Narendra Modi recalled that the Congress, then in power in Uttarakhand, had not allowed him as Gujarat Chief Minister to rebuild the hill shrine of Kedarnath after flash floods devastated it in 2013. More than 5,000 people were killed across Uttarakhand in the floods and several towns and villages were destroyed by a series of landslides set off by the flash floods.
The Prime Minister, who offered prayers at the famous Lord Shiv temple before launching the projects, said he had rushed to Kedarnath after the floods four years ago and offered to reconstruct the areas surrounding the shrine. The then chief minister of Uttarkhand Vijay Bahuguna of the Congress, now in the BJP, had agreed “in principle,” the Prime Minister said, adding that the party’s central leadership was alarmed when word reached it.
“In my excitement I shared the development with the media and within an hour TV channels flashed it, causing a storm in New Delhi. They (the Congress-led UPA government then at the Centre) viewed the development with a kind of alarm as they thought the Gujarat chief minister will now reach Kedarnath and mounted pressure on the then state government not to agree to my request,” PM Modi said.
