'Ram Temple fund raising campaign was world's biggest'

Ayodhya, March 7 (IANS) Shri Ram Janambhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, general secretary Champat Rai, has said that "crowd funding for the Ram temple was the world's biggest fund-raising campaign and people can still donate online through the new Trust website. Foreign devotees are requested to wait a little more. They will be notified on completion of FCRA formalities".Rai said that donations for temple construction have crossed Rs 2,500 crore, based on bank receipts till February 4."Around 9 lakh VHP cadres split into 1.75 lakh teams to launch the door-to-door campaign across the country and funds were deposited in banks by 38,125 volunteers. To ensure transparency, 49 control rooms worked round-the-clock with 23 qualified volunteers and chartered accountants monitoring deposits from the nodal centre at Delhi. The app created by Hyderabad-based Dhanusha Infotech Company helped in the operations," he said.An audit of the funds-raising campaign would be completed by March-end."Devotees have made their contributions. From the Northeast, people of Arunachal Pradesh contributed Rs 4.5 crore, Manipur Rs 2 crore, Mizoram Rs 0.2 crore, Nagaland Rs 0.3 crore, Meghalaya Rs 0.9 crore. Devotees from Tamil Nadu contributed Rs 85 crore and Kerala Rs 13 crore," he said.Crowd-funding for the Ram temple, which ended last week had touched over 10 crore families in 4 lakh villages across India in a well-coordinated drive that included a meticulously-built digital network, bridging volunteers, banks and the temple trust.Forty-nine control rooms were set up across the country to ensure transparency and seamless coordination.
--IANS amita/pgh