Under its corporate social responsibility, the New India Assurance Company presented a cheque for Rs 4 crore to the Kedarnath Utthan Charitable Trust. The cheque was presented to the Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat. The company’s General Manager S Shankar presented the amount which will be used for beautification of Kedarnath apart from being used for various construction works being undertaken by the Kedarnath development authority.
It is pertinent to mention here that following the 2013 disaster, the Kedarnath Utthan Charitable Trust was formed for facilitating resumption of pilgrimage to Kedarnath and to ensure planning and progress of reconstruction works here. During his visit to Kedarnath in October 2017, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also appealed to individuals and companies to contribute funds under CSR. According to information provided by the member secretary of the Trust, Dilip Jawalkar, till now Rs 6.99 crore has been presented under CSR by various companies and by individual donors. The ONGC had agreed to present Rs 4.78 crore to the Trust out of which Rs 2.94 crore has been deposited in the account of the Trust so far. He further informed that works amounting to Rs 40 crore are being undertaken by the Jindal Group at Kedarnath with the Government periodically checking progress and quality of the works. While the Chief Minister has also appealed individuals and companies for contributions, the chief secretary Utpal Kumar Singh has written to Coal India and National Thermal Power Corporation requesting them for monetary assistance under CSR.