Over ₹25,000 million collected for Ram Temple’s construction: VHP

Rai said that door-to-door collection of funds for the Ram Temple construction has also been stopped.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) said on Saturday said that ₹25,000 million has been collected so far for the construction of the Ram Temple in Uttar Pradesh Ayodhya. “As per banks receipts till March 4, donation of ₹25,000 million has been collected for the construction of the Ram Temple,” VHP leader Champat Rai was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Earthen lamps lit to celebrate the foundation laying ceremony of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, at Moti Nagar in New Delhi in this file picture from 2020. (Sanchit Khanna/ Hindustan Times)

Rai said that door-to-door collection of funds for the Ram Temple construction has also been stopped. Rai, who is also the general secretary of the Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, a body entrusted with the responsibility of constructing the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, said that people interested in donating can visit the trust’s website to do so. “We are in talks to acquire land for a ground in front of the temple. The temple will be built in three years,” Rai was also quoted as saying by ANI.

The mass contact and contribution campaign for the construction of the grand temple in Ayodhya started on January 15 and ended on February 27. A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court in November 2019 headed by the former chief justice of India Ranjan Gogoi ruled in favour of Ram Lalla and had directed the government to form a trust that will oversee the construction of a Ram Temple at the site which spreads over approximately 2.7 acres. Prime Minister Narendra Modi performed the bhoomi pujan for the construction of Ram Temple on August 5 last year.