Chief Minister Shri Pushkar Singh Dhami welcomed foreign delegates on Monday at a dinner on the occasion of the G20 Infrastructure Working Group meeting held at Narendra Nagar Tehri.
Chief Minister Dhami tol them that "we welcome and congratulate you from the bottom of heart in this divine alpine and sunshine Himalayan valley - our Uttrakhand state.
Uttarakhand, cradled in the lap of the Abode of Snow and Himalayas is called the "land of gods". This divine land is home to India's spiritual history.
Uttrakhand is also the thriving ground of Yoga and Ayurveda - our ancient Indian system of holistic medicine and spiritual health
"The theme of this year's G-20 is "One Earth, One Family, One Future." This is basically based on the principle "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" given to the world by Indian vedic civilisation, which means 'The world is one family'," the CM noted.
CM Dhami said that the scale of development in any country is measured by the infrastructure of that country. Infrastructural progress should not only be about making roads, railroads, ropeways, or runways, but it should also ease the daily living of common man by providing accessible and sustainable livelihood.
"The rough terrain and multitude of natural hindrances in a mountainous territory make the infrastructural development troublesome and unnatural to some degree. Our innate respect for natural habitats and cultural ecology, as well as the necessity to preserve the natural Himalayan beauty, must come in the way of progress we aspire to achieve. One should not deny the fact that our Himalayan region also has a natural infrastructure to sustain itself, which should not be sidelined for the sake of modernization.
"Therefore, we envision our developmental progress mainly in preservation of our natural resources. We are committed to building around nature and not on nature. Not consume nature but reuse nature in the humble way of simple hill life. Even then, we are prone to massive infrastructural loss, both natural and man made.Our region is home to natural disasters as well, that downturn our developmental ambitions," he said.
"That's why we are rethinking our infrastructural goals only aiming at sustainable development through ecological sustenance. Enivisioned by our respected PM who himself lives a simple yogic life we are on route to build the infrastructure of future which will also be the infrastructure "of nature "when it is sustained" The network of all- weather roads, bharatmala, sagarmala, parwatmala are a few such examples," he added.
The CM said that "I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the respected Prime Minister of our country Narendra Modi, for giving Uttarakhand this opportunity to organize three G-20 meetings. We are feeling proud while fulfilling this important responsibility because it is a big achievement for all the people of Uttarakhand. The idea of our ancient civilization 'Atithi Devo Bhava', always keeps us ready to serve the guests, so I hope that all of you have enjoyed your stay in our state. I am sure that the nectar that will emerge from the brainstorming done by the G-20 Infrastructure Working Group will prove to be helpful in bridging the gap between policy implementation and ecological conservation. In the end, I congratulate all of you on behalf of 1.25 crore people of Uttarakhand and hope that you all will enjoy the cultural evening and Indian dining afterward."