Rs. 1,000cr raised for Ayodhya's Ram Mandir in one month
On January 14, a massive campaign was launched to raise funds for the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, and till now, over Rs. 1,000 crore has been collected, a member of the trust revealed on Thursday. Champat Rai, the Secretary of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra, told PTI that people from all communities have generously donated for the temple's construction.
At least 1.5 lakh activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) are involved with the campaign, Rai said. Of them, 37 have been given the task to deposit the donation into bank accounts. He then revealed that over Rs. 1,000 crore has been deposited into accounts in three nationalized banks — State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab National Bank (PNB), and the Bank of Baroda.
Earlier, President Ram Nath Kovind had donated Rs. 5,00,100 in his personal capacity. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had also donated Rs. 1 lakh for the cause. "One brick from my family shall also be placed in the construction of Lord Ram's Temple. This is not a Ram Temple, really this is a national temple, (sic)" Chouhan had tweeted at the time.
According to the estimates, the total cost of building the Ram Mandir complex will be around Rs. 1,100 crore, including Rs. 300-400 crore for the temple alone. The temple will be constructed in a way that it sustains earthquakes, storms, and other natural calamities. The trust had decided not to take government funds, corporate donations, or funds from those abroad.
To recall, the foundation stone for the temple was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 5, 2020. The ground-breaking ceremony took place months after the Supreme Court ended the decades-long sensitive dispute by handing over the land for the temple's construction. The apex court also ordered that five acres of land must be given for constructing a mosque.
