Modi offers prayers at Kedarnath, renews resolve to serve people

Kedarnath:Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday offered prayers at the Kedarnath shrine saying his visit to the Himalayan temple had strengthened his resolve to serve the nation.
Serving people was true service of the lord, the Prime Minister said after offering ‘rudrabhiskek’ at the high-altitude shrine.
Modi, who had visited the shrine in May this year, also laid the foundation stones of five major reconstruction projects at Kedarpuri. These are improved facilities for devotees, construction of retaining walls and ghats at the Mandakini and Saraswati rivers, an approach road to the shrine and reconstructing Adi Guru Shankaracharya’s tomb which was devastated in the 2013 deluge.
He described the projects as ambitious and expensive saying there would be no dearth of funds to ensure that they were completed in a time-bound manner.
As Gujarat CM, he had offered to take the responsibility of reconstructing areas surrounding the temple when the tragedy had struck in 2013, killing thousands of people, Modi said.
The then Uttarakhand chief minister had also agreed in principle. “But the then government at the Centre apparently had reservations about it and I had to return. However, perhaps Baba (Lord Shiva) had decided that the reconstruction around Kedarnath would be done only by Baba’s son,” he said.
Modi had visited the temple in May when the portals of the Himalayan shrine were reopened for devotees after remaining closed for six months for the winters.