Whole World Waiting for Historic Moment: PM

Ayodhya: Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in a festooned, festive Ayodhya on Saturday to unveil a ‘new look old’ city with an airport, a revamped train station and projects worth Rs. 15,700 crore ahead of the consecration of the Ram temple next month. The flower-bedecked temple town, associated with the Ramayana for centuries and at the centrestage of modern day politics since the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, was the cynosure of attention as PM Modi said the strength of ‘vikas’ (development) and ‘virasat’ (heritage) would take India forward. “The whole world is waiting for the historic moment of the ‘pran pratishtha’ ceremony in Ayodhya on January 22,” PM Modi said at a rally here while appealing to people to not come on the day itself. Stressing that the business of people from across the country and the world coming to Ayodhya had started and would go on till eternity, the prime minister also appealed for a resolve to make town the cleanest in the country. Addressing the meeting after inaugurating the Maharshi Valmiki airport and the redeveloped station named Ayodhya Dham from where he flagged off two Amrit Bharat and six Vande Bharat trains, some virtually, he appealed to all citizens to light diyas in their houses on January 22 so the whole country basks in the glory of the temple.Marking January 22 as a special day, he also asked people to launch cleanliness drives at pilgrimage sites and temples across the country from Makar Sankranti on January 14 till the temple consecration day. There was a time Lord Ram was “living under a tent”, but now he will get a concrete house like the four crore poor who got pucca houses, he said. The Ujjwala scheme, he said, had transformed the lives of crores of mothers and sisters. Only 14 crore gas connections were given in five decades, but his government in a decade gave 18 crore, including 10 crore free of cost under the scheme, the prime minister pointed out.Earlier in the day, he stopped by at the home of an Ujjwala beneficiary Meera Majhi. He met the family in her humble home and was also seen drinking a cup of tea. PM Modi inaugurated, dedicated to the nation and laid the foundation stone of multiple development projects worth more than Rs. 15,700 crore. These comprise projects worth about Rs. 11,100 crore for the development of the city and its surrounding areas, and those worth about Rs. 4,600 crore related to other works in Uttar Pradesh. The day in Ayodhya, which in 1992 catapulted to global headlines with the demolition of the Mughal-era Babri Masjid by a group of kar sevaks who believed it was built on the birthplace of Lord Ram, was one of dances, music and the many folk colours of Uttar Pradesh and other states. After he arrived in Ayodhya, PM Modi held a roadshow from the airport to the railway station and was greeted by hundreds of people lining alongside the route.

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