Join
me chanting in full strength,” Jay Jay Kedar”.
My
best wishes to all the brothers and sisters in the divine land of Uttarakhand;
I have just one desire, may Baba Kedar continue to bless everyone.
The
auspicious festival of Deepavali was celebrated in the country and across the
world only yesterday. I convey my best wishes to all the brothers and sisters
in the country and around the world for this auspicious festival from this holy
land of Kedarnath.
There
are some states like Gujarat where the new year starts today. Greetings on the
occasion of the new year; many congratulations! I convey my best wishes to all
those families around the world who begin their new year today. Greetings to
all of you on the occasion of new year. Happy new year! Once again Baba has
summoned me. Once again I have reached here at the feet of the lord. Once again
I got the opportunity to meet the old acquaintances. Today, they again reminded
me what they would have heard of me.
This
Garuda Chatti, at one point of time I got an opportunity to spend several years
of my life here. But, perhaps, it was not the Lord’s will that I spend my whole
life at his feet and that’s why he sent me back. Perhaps the Lord thought, why
should I serve just one god as there are 1.25 billion gods in the country to
serve. There is a saying that service to the people is just the same as the
service to God. And that is why the service to 1.25 billion people is equal to
the service of the Lord, it is equal to the service of Badri Vishal, it is
equal to the service to Mandakini and it is equal to service to mother Ganges.
And that is why once again after making a solemn pledge with new energy from
here and with the blessings of Bhole Baba, with a clean mind and concrete
determination every Indian makes a solemn pledge to take the country to the top
of the world by 2022, the 75th anniversary of India’s independence.
With this solemn pledge, at the outset I pay my tributes to all those people
who lost their lives in this holy land due to the natural calamity. They came from
all the states. At that time I was chief minister of a state and I had no
right to encroach upon the work of other states. I can never think of doing
that thing. However, I could not help myself. Whether I was right or wrong,
this will be decided by the history. But I reached out to those victims and I
came here.
And
I made a request to the government at that time that please allow the Gujarat
government to carry out the work of rebuilding Kedarnath and I will try to meet
the expectations of my fellow countrymen. We were sitting in a room, the then
chief minister of the state agreed, all the officers also agreed and they said
that Modi Ji it will be good if Gujarat took the responsibility. And I
expressed my pledge before the media after coming out of the meeting. The news
flashed on TV that Modi was now taking the responsibility of rebuilding
Kedarnath. I don’t know what kind of upheaval it created in Delhi. Within an
hour such a pressure was built on the state government that it had to announce
that it did not need help of Gujarat to deal with the issue. It’s fine, if the
people sitting in Delhi were feeling problem then why should I trouble anyone?
I stepped back. However, perhaps the lord had decided then that this work will
be done by one of his sons.
And
when Bhartiya Janta Party’s government was formed here and the people of
Uttarakhand overwhelmingly supported us then it strengthened my belief that now
the Lord has decided that I would have to finish this task and that is why I
have come back here before the closure of the temple’s doors and once again I
make a pledga at the Lord’s feet. Today the foundation is being laid for a
grand redevelopment work within the stipulated time. What kind of pilgrim
centre it should be, what kind of arrangements should be made for the priests,
how to take care of all the needs of the priests, how to make arrangements for
a more comfortable life for them that is bigger than the hardships suffered by
them, how to make arrangements for it? The roadmap for redevelopment has been
prepared while keeping all these in mind. I myself took the meetings, I was
taking care of everything; what kind of design it will be? What will be the
architecture? How the rebuilding work will be carried out while following the
architecture of our temples and also following all those rules and regulations?
The roadmap for its development has been prepared keeping all these things in
the mind.
In
a way, the houses that will be given to the priests, they will be three-in-one.
The arrangement for serving the travelers should be made on the ground floor,
all such arrangements will be made there. They themselves will stay on the
first floor and their guests and personal guests will stay on the floors above
that level. Round the clock electricity and water will be provided and all the
arrangements for cleanliness will be ensured and this entire road will be made
very wide. And then a separate facility will be created for the priests. We
will also create facilities for buying worship related stuff, for buying pilgrimage
related stuff for a very large number of travelers if they need to buy
something after coming here; we will have that facility. We will make all the
arrangements be it a post office or be it a bank or facility of telephones and
also the facilities for using computers.
Today,
five projects are starting here. First, as I just said, the widening of this
road, it will be made of RCC and it will have all the modern facilities. As
soon as a traveler starts his journey, he will get to listen the music being
played at the banks of Mandakini, he will walk towards this side while
listening that music lost in the devotion.
The
work of constructing a wall on the bank of Mandakini will be done. In a way it
is related to providing the seating facility to the travelers, this kind of
arrangements should be there so that they can hear the sound of the flowing
river. As I just said, the approach road, such an approach road will be
constructed that will make it very grand, will make it look like divine. And
its lighting will be similar to the lighting arrangement made at the retaining
wall on the bank of river Mandakini. And one more embankment will be
constructed because the power of the source of water can be experienced on both
the sides. So on the one side is mother Saraswati; so the retaining wall and
embankment for it will also be constructed, it will be done. And a lot of money
will also be spent on that thing.
And
one more thing. A boy who was born 2500 years ago in Kerala’s Kagadi –he left
home at the age of 7 and wanders through Himachal, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari
reaches the land of mother Bharti; who on the Tilak on his forehead carries the
soil of all the regions on his forehead comes to Kedar. He also completes his
life here. The Adi Shankaracharya, whose philosophy has continued to inspire
India for hundreds of years, whose sepulcher; that too was destroyed in this
calamity. The design work for that structure is ongoing. I invite devoutness
and architecture that such a grand place should be built for Adi Shankar, such
a grand sepulcher should be built for him; and it should be built in such a
manner that people should not feel that it is separate from Kedar. But the
travelers should feel a kind of spiritual awakening along with the tradition of
that great mortification as soon as they reach near the Adi Shankar. The work
is ongoing in that direction to create such a structure. Today, the foundation
is being laid for that thing also.
I’m
aware that money will be required but I have full confidence that once Indian
pilgrims decide this thing with a sense of devotion then it is my belief that
this country will not fall short in providing the funds for the kind of
redevelopment work as desired by the pilgrims. And I also invite the state
governments of the country to participate in this thing. I would also invite
the people from industry, business people to lend their support for the
corporate social responsibility.
I’m
grateful to JSW which has decided to take the responsibility for the initial
work. But different kind of dreams keep coming into my mind, new and newer
things keep getting added into them therefore I would also request the people
for this thing and also for the CSR.
When
this kind of massive fund will be invested here, massive work for creating
infrastructure will be carried out here then all the rules related to
environment will be followed in that thing. The place will be rebuilt as per
the interest, as per the nature and tendency of this place. It will be modern
but its soul will be the same that has been preserved by the land of Kedar
inside it for hundreds of years; this kind of redevelopment work will be done
here.
When
I had come here at the time of opening of the doors of the temple I had the
intention of sending a message to the country that we should get out of the
shadow of that calamity. Sometimes we think at the time of starting the journey
whether facilities have now been created there or not? Can we reach there or
not? And that is why the number of pilgrims had come down. However, I’m happy
that this time more than 4.5 lakh pilgrims have come to the feet of the lord in
such a short span of time. And once again this pilgrimage has been revived. And
you can write it down that the next year this number will not be less than 10
lakh because people’s trust has been restored, the message has been conveyed as
the entire country saw that on TV and the message will be conveyed once more
due to today’s programme and when the doors will be opened again, when the
journey will start again then once again the plenty of pilgrimage will be
undertaken with the same strength. Once again Uttarakhand which is our divine
land, which is the land of our brave-hearts; Uttarakhand, there cannot be a
better place to express the devotion of my brave mothers.
In
our country, Himalaya has a lot of unique features. There is so much potential
for development and every region of Himalaya has a different spirit in it. If
we go to Sringar, then we have a different experience of Himalaya; and we
experience another thing if we go to Mata Vaishno Devi or Amarnath. The same
Himalaya is in Himachal Pradesh, but if we go to Shimla, Kullu, Manali then we
experience something different but if we come to the land of Uttarakhand in the
lap of the same Himalaya then we experience a spiritual awakening. The same
Himalaya, but we experience a different thing when we go to Darjeeling and we
experience different thing when we go to Sikkim. You can imagine the same
Himalayas, the same mountains, the same snow but we experience different spirit
in different regions.
I’m
a person who has wandered a lot in the lap of Himalayas. I have experienced the
spirit of every region distinctively. And that is why I’m able to talk about
this thing myself. I don’t know what can be weighed in which manner in a
science laboratory but the way I have experienced the Himalaya; that Himalaya,
if anyone has interest in flora and fauna of this place then a very wide
landscape is available to him to keep discovering new things throughout his
life. If someone has interest in adventure then Himalayas invite every
adventurist of the world. If someone has interest in herbs and herbal medicine
of this place then such natural gems have been present in every single lap of Himalaya
that it can make someone feel a new spirit and the kind of usage of herbal
medicine are there that the rural people of this place are being aware of. And
I have seen that this scorpion herb, if a scorpion stings by chance then a
villager would immediately ask not to cry and use this herb or apply that herb
and it will give relief. And he puts a leaf on it and it provides relief. And
both of them grow together. What a wonderful arrangement has been made by the
lord. And that is why the deeper we dwell into these things; and that is why
the government of India has started a massive research work in Dehradun on our
natural assets, on the assets of Himalaya, this research is going to be of
great use in the future.
In
the entire world, I see a huge potential for organic farming in the lap of our
Himalaya. Sikkim is a small state. It has a population of just 6-7 lakh people
but nearly 12-15 lakh tourists visit the state and it also has problem of road
connectivity and it doesn’t have an airport either. But now I’m constructing it
and it will be constructed soon. But despite that tourists come in such a large
numbers. Sikkim has converted the entire state into an organic state. It
continuously worked for 10-12 years as per the international parameters. The
entire Himlayan region should be freed from the use of chemical fertilsers, all
the Himalayan states should stop using chemicals and should use herbal compost.
If we continue to work for the next 10-12 years with patience then this is the
power of organic farming that the world will be ready to pay one dollar for the
same agricultural produce of yours that now just fetches one rupee.
I
invite Uttarakhand, I call upon the government of Uttarakhand and the officers
of Uttarakhand to take up this task and you should move ahead with the dream to
turn Uttarakhand into an organic state, you should set a target for 2022 and
start working on it from today itself. It may take 10 years to get the
certification as it has its own rules. But once you decide this thing that you
will create public awareness, you will bring about the change; you can imagine
that today the entire world is moving towards holistic health care and only
then we can move our agriculture produce away from the world of chemicals and
then what a great service it will be to the mankind. We also need to strengthen
this power of Himalayas.
There
is plenty of scope for tourism but it should not jeopardize spiritual strength of
this land even a bit and tourism can be simultaneously developed along with it.
We can develop new and newer areas so that the nature is protected, environment
is protected and the devotion for the god too has been maintained.
There
is an old saying in the hills that hills have their unique features. The youth
and water of hills never come to the use of the hills. We have taken up the
task to change this saying. The youth of the hills and the water from the hills
should be used here. The electricity should be generated from the hill water
and the same water should be used for adventure tourism and water sports. And
new tourist destinations should be developed on the basis of the same water
that has never been used for the hills and that the same water should become
capable of inviting the youth from all over the world and it should become
useful for the hills. And the youth those who used to get downs from the hills
and go to the plains in search of livelihood, we should create such opportunities
in the hills that these youth will not have to leave the hills. The government
of India is taking one step after another so that the youth of the hills should
become useful for the hills.
The
government of Uttarakhand has taken several important decisions, several
important initiatives in such a short span of time and it’s the result of these
things that today the development is scaling new heights; a new confidence is
being generated.
People
of Uttarakhand have enough strength and sense of discipline.. There is not a
single family which does not have someone in the armed forces. There is not a
single village where there will not be 250-300 retired armed forces personnel.
And when ex-servicemen are present in such a large number then the discipline of
that area becomes commendable. And this discipline is a big support, a big
strength for the tourists. And we should publicise this thing, we should create
scheme for this purpose. We should create a system for using the experience of
ex-servicemen for instilling confidence in the tourists which can become a big
source of support for us and others. There is an immense potential and
development of Uttarakhand by exploiting that potential should be done so that
Uttarakhand becomes the biggest attraction in the country, so that it becomes
the most favored tourist destination so that for tourists it is: Uttarakhand,
for adventure it is: Uttarakhand, for travelers it should be Uttarakhand, for
adventure it should be Uttarakhand, for the nature and for those people who
have a desire to stay in the lap of nature it should be Uttarakhand, for those
who conduct research and develop things, for them it should be Uttarakhand.
I
invite all of you to start a new account on these days of Diwali and the
beginning of new year. In our tradition, the entire country closes its books of
accounts on Diwali and starts new books of accounts, so a new book of account
of development starts today. We will move ahead to take this development
journey to new heights. Even today, I have given some suggestions. The state
government will go through them one more time and I will meet them again in a
month or two. I will lay emphasis on those other things that I have in my mind
for this area. But it is our collective responsibility to protect the
environment. It is our collective responsibility to protect the nature. I can
guarantee this thing that if we protect the environment then it will protect
us. I would like to assure you that if we protect the nature then it will
protect us. The history of hundreds of years is a testimony to the fact that
whenever, wherever the nature has been protected no problem was created there
due to the nature. Wherever the environment has been protected no problem was
created there due to the environment. And it is that land from where we can
provide that strength to the people.
We
took upon us the task of providing gas connections to the poorest of the poor
under the Pradhanmantri Ujjwala Scheme to set them free from using the wooden
stoves, to stop logging of the forests. It was a massive campaign for
protection of environment. The government of India and Uttarakhand government
have taken it forward in a significant manner by working together.
Now
we have taken upon us another task. Today, there are four crore families in the
country that don’t have electric bulb in their houses. Even today they have
been condemned to lead the life of 18th or 19th century.
This is the 21st century and whether the poorest of the poor family
should have an electric bulb or not? Whether electricity should be provided to
that poor family or not whose kids want to study in the night? If
a poor too wants his wheat or grain to be milled in a wheat grinder then why
should he has to go 10 kilometers, instead of that if there is electricity
operated grain mill in his village then the work of milling of wheat and millet
will be done in the village or not? In order to bring about change in the
lives of poor, I have taken upon this task on myself to provide electricity
connection to 4 crore poor households under the Pradhanmantri Saubhagya scheme.
There are thousands of families in Uttarakhand those are yet to get electricity
connection.
I
call upon the government of Uttarakhand please adopt this scheme of the
government of India. And there should be a competition among the states that
which one of them will complete the Saubhagya Scheme before others? Which state
will complete the Ujjwala scheme before others? Which state promotes the
tourism to the maximum possible extent? In the coming time there should be a
healthy competition among the states for different sectors of development. I
call upon all the Himalayan states for a competition. Let’s have a healthy
competition with each other and take the development to new heights.
I
would also like to congratulate Uttarakhand for this thing – toilets, freedom
from open defecation; some days ago I was told that Uttarakhand has completed
the work of making its rural areas free from open defecation. Now no one has to
go to defecate in open in villages of the state. In cities, the work is ongoing
and Uttarakhand is getting ready to completely become open defecation free
including cities.
I
congratulate all of you for providing the momentum to this work so far. But I’d
like to urge you people to run this scheme under the mission mode. Nobody
should be compelled to relieve himself in open area in the cities as well.
I
had visited Uttar Pradesh some days ago. Yogi Ji’s government has taken up the
responsibility of Uttar Pradesh. Now they have changed the name of toilets. Now
they no longer call a toilet - toilet, they don’t call it Sandas, they have
named toilet as Izzatghar (the place of honor).
I
think those mothers and sisters who have been compelled to relieve themselves
in open they fully understand the meaning of this word – Izzatghar. We should
also run a campaign for building these Izzatghars. Toilets are in themselves a
great facility for restoring the honor of mothers and sisters. It provides a
great service to their health as well. And recently Unicef has conducted a
survey of 10,000 villages in India. The survey covered both kind of houses that
had toilets and that didn’t have toilets. It covered those villages which were
aware about the toilets and also those villages which were not aware; Unicef
studied all those villages. It’s an organ of
United
Nations and they found that different kind of diseases that afflict the
household due to lack of toilet, and due to the disease if the kid falls ill
then mother gets busy, father gets busy in tending the kid; the kid can’t go to
school and father can’t go out for work; and if the mother falls sick then the
entire family falls sick and if the wage earner of that house falls sick then
the income of that family stops and the entire family starves. After taking
into account all these things, they conducted this survey that if there is no
toilet in the household then what are the expenses on diseases and what are the
expenses when a toilet has been constructed. And Unicef has calculated that
construction of toilet saves Rs. 50 thousand of a poor family on diseases. You
just imagine if a family is able to save Rs. 50 thousand annually then what
kind of strength it will provide to that family.
A
toilet can change lives and that is why I have to run a campaign to construct
toilets across the country with the same commitment with which I will have to
carry out rebuilding work of Kedarnath Dham of the Lord only then my country will
move ahead. We should march with the same commitment.
Once
again I welcome the government of Uttarakhand, I thank them. And all the
pilgrims from across the country who come on the pilgrimage of Char Dham Yatra,
and those who are aware that we have started construction work for the new
roads to connect the four pilgrimage centres at a cost of Rs. 12,000 crore; we
have started the work on providing modern connectivity.
So
now this Kedarnath Dham will be constructed in this manner. My Kedarnath will
become grand, it will become divine and it will become a good source of
inspiration. It is becoming a source of devotion for 1.25 billion countrymen.
Every son has a desire to once take his old parents on the pilgrimage of Char
Dham.
Today,
this government is carrying out that work that is dream of 1.25 billion
countrymen; it has been working to realise those dreams. Although this work is
being executed on the land of Uttarakhand but it is being done for every single
Indian. And I’m having a feeling of extreme divine satisfaction in my life
while starting that work before you people.
I
convey my good wishes to all you. I once again bow down to Bhole Baba (the
lord Shiva). And I once again call upon you to join me chanting with your full
strength Jay Jay Baba Bhole, Jay Jay Baba Bhole,
Jay
Jay Baba Bhole, Jay Jay Baba Bhole.
Thank
you very much.
***
AKT/AK/KT/DG/AK