Prez donates ₹5L for Ram temple
NEW DELHI: President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday contributed ₹500,100 for the construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya. The amount was handed over to a delegation comprising the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s international working president Alok Kumar, treasurer of the Ram Janmabhoomi Teerath Kshetra trust, Govind Dev Giri and former bureaucrat Nripendra Misra, who is the head of the temple construction committee. Kumar said in a letter given along with the money, the President has specified that the donation was in his personal capacity. “He is the first citizen of the country so we went to him to initiate this drive,” he said.
Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu’s family has also donated an undisclosed amount.
The VHP, an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s ideological parent, was at the forefront of the Ram mandir construction movement. It has now been mandated to collect funds for the temple’s construction by the temple trust.
According to VHP functionaries, the construction of the temple is expected to incur an expenditure of ₹300-400 crore while the overall cost of the development of the temple complex which will have a prayer hall and an auditorium will be about ₹1100 crore.
“Money is being collected from individuals as no state funding will be accepted for the construction. Volunteers will spread out to 5.25 lakh villages seeking funds from people across castes and communities,” said a VHP functionary who asked not to be named. According to a second VHP functionary , so far, 75,000 people have contributed for the construction, of which 70,000 paid through online platforms. Donations are also being received in cash at the counters set up in Ayodhya. “The collection boxes kept near the temple receive about ₹15-20 lakh a month. Earlier, before the Supreme Court’s verdict this amount was in the range of ₹2-2.5 lakh.”
As part of the collection drive, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat also visited a Valmiki Temple in Delhi where he was given a cheque for an undisclosed amount by the head of the temple, Krishna Shah Vidyarthi.
Other leaders contribute
Others who contributed on Friday include Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath (₹2 lakh); Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan (₹1 lakh); BJP leader and former
MP chief minister Uma Bharti, CM of Uttarkhand Trivendra Singh Rawat who gave ₹1.51 lakh; Uttarakhand governor Devirani Maurya who gave ₹1.21 lakh; UP governor Anandiben Patel donated ₹2 lakh; and a former legislator from Tezgaon in Uttar Rae, Bareli Surendra Bahadur Singh who gave ₹1.11 crore .
Governor of Jharkhand Draupadi Murmu has also contributed an undisclosed amount.
In Delhi, where a camp office for the trust was set up, ₹24 crore was collected on the first day itself, said a third person aware of the details.
On whether the VHP will also visit Opposition leaders for the collection, VHP spokesperson Vinod Bansal said, “We have said we will reach out to all the people who wish to contribute. If anyone from the Congress or other parties is willing to contribute they should invite us just as the President and the Vice President did; we will go to them as well.”
In Bhopal, member of Parliament Pragya Thakur, also contributed ₹1.11 lakh.
VHP regional head Jitendra Chauhan said: “As many as 20,000 VHP workers will hold a door-to-door campaign to collect funds. The contribution drive will continue till February 27. Our target is to collect the donation of at least ₹5 crore from Madhya Pradesh.”