Guj: PM Modi attends meeting of Somnath Trust

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today attended a meeting of the Shree Somnath Trust at the Raj Bhavan here along with BJP veteran L K Advani and party chief Amit Shah.

Modi, Shah and Advani are among the seven trustees of the trust that manages affairs of the famous Somnath temple of Lord Shiva, situated in Gir-Somnath district of Gujarat.

"The meeting lasted for about an hour wherein former Gujarat chief minister Keshubhai Patel was renominated as the chairman of the trust for the term of another year," said P K Laheri, one of the trustees.

Various development works going on at the temple site, along with the income and expenditure accounts were discussed at the meeting, Laheri said.

J D Parmar, one of the seven trustees, could not attend the meeting due to personal reasons, he said.

The seven trustees are: Modi, Shah, Advani, Patel, Laheri, Parmar and Harshvardhan Neotia, a businessman.

The temple, located in Prabhas Patan near Veraval in Saurashtra on the western coast, is believed to be the first among the twelve Jyotirlinga shrines of Lord Shiva.

It attracts thousands of devotees every day.

After attending the meeting, Modi visited his nonagenarian mother Hira Ben in Raysan village near Gandhinagar.

He spent about 15 minutes with Hira Ben who lives with Modi's younger brother Pankaj Modi in the village that falls between Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad.

The PM then left for the Ahmedabad airport to fly back to Delhi, said neighbours of Pankaj Modi.

Modi visits his mother whenever he comes to Gandhinagar.