Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh and BJP candidate from Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency on Friday said that the Congress party had abandoned Mantalai project and it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who revived it to set up a state-of-the-art Wellness cum Meditation centre.

In a whirlwind election tour of Chenani Assembly segment during which he visited several remote hilly panchayat areas and addressed a series of public meetings culminating at Mantalai, Dr Jitendra Singh said that late Dhirendra Brahamchari had planned Aparna Ashram at this spot.

For this purpose he was provided a piece of land by the then Congress government on the personal intervention of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who held the yoga guru in high esteem, he added.

However, after the sudden demise of Dhirendra Brahamchari in a plane crash, for the next 50 years the structure was left abandoned and allowed to turn into shambles, he said.

It was only after Prime Minister Modi took over in 2014, said Dr Jitendra Singh, that the project was revived because Modi taught us that rising above all other considerations and regardless of political interest, we will fulfil all those tasks which remained unfinished by the UPA government because of their politics of appeasement and vote politics.

He said that the state-of-art Wellness cum meditation centre set up at Mantalai will soon be a spot of international level as it caters to the requirement of all age groups and all genders at a much cost effective rate.

He said, for the ease of the travellers visiting here as well as for easy accessibility, the new centre also has a helipad and landing facility.

Dr Jitendra Singh had proposed that the old Aparna Ashram should be maintained as Dhirendra Brahamchari’s archive collection and the hotel industry from outside should be motivated to invest here in the PPP Model. He said, he will get the proposal revived after the election.

In earlier meetings during the day, Dr Jitendra Singh said, Chenani block which was known to be very backward till a few years ago has witnessed a network of roads and this has contributed to district Udhampur securing one of the three ranks every year as far as PMGSY roads is concerned.

One of them is Asia’s longest 9.5 long km ‘Chenani-Nashri Highway Tunnel’, Sudhmahadev-Khileni national highway connecting the most backward and inaccessible villages on the route and the Mantalai Centre.

Dr Jitendra Singh said that Purple and Lavender cultivation which was earlier started in Doda district has now been undertaken even in the Basantgarh area of Chenani.