` 500 CR COLLECTED FOR RAM TEMPLE

After collecting a record Rs500 crore in just 17 days, the Ram Janambhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust has launched the second phase from Monday to collect donations from 11 crore Hindu families across the nation for the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya.

Briefing media, the Trust General Secretary Champat Rai said that authorised persons from the VHP and RSS will visit about 5 lakh villages and towns in the country till February 27 with coupons of Rs 10,100 and 1000 denominations to collect donations.

“We have distributed coupons worth Rs 1000 crores for door to door campaigns across the country. We expect that the donations will swell to the tune of more than Rs 1500 crores by the end of February,” he said.

In the first phase, the Trust had accepted donations only above Rs 2,000 through cheques and bank RTGS by issuing receipts. “We got a nationwide good response from Ram Bhakts. People in large numbers donated whole-heartedly during the first phase of Nidhi Samarpan Abhiyan,” he added.