As the donation campaign for Ayodhya’s Ram temple construction concluded on Saturday, the authorities associated with the drive said nearly Rs 2,000 crore have been collected from across the country and world.
The authorities, however, confirmed that a substantial sum of money is yet to be processed and deposited in bank accounts, following which the amount will increase significantly. On Friday, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) had appealed that those who are yet to contribute may contact their local campaign team or office to make their donation and get the receipt or coupons soon.
“The Shri Ram Mandir Nidhi Samarpan Abhiyan began on January 15 on the pious day of Makar Samkranti. Lakhs of teams have worked round the clock in five lakh villages, towns and cities, covering around half of the population of the country. The voluntary contribution received is being deposited in the accounts of Shri Ram Janambhhomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, which is facilitating the construction, in the local branches of State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and Bank of Baroda. The collection details with its respective receipts or coupon numbers are also being updated in a mobile application especially designed for the purpose,†said VHP national spokesperson Vinod Bansal.
Talking to The Indian Express, in-charge of the Trust office in Ayodhya, Prakash Gupta said as of now they only have an estimated amount, which is around Rs 2,000 crore. “The entire process of the counting and audit might take a month. A lot of cheques are in the banks and there was a three-day bank holiday starting from Friday. So, a lot of money is yet to be cleared. We also have to take back the remaining coupons from the volunteers and count that too.â€
Asked about the process of collection and counting, Bansal said the Trust and the VHP has made a very foolproof and transparent system.
“The entire thing is based on an app developed by a technical team, which is regularly monitoring this. Under this app, we have given access to the campaign head, technical head and head of the respective campaign teams. Every person has an ID and password, and every day they enter the data. There is a fixed number of coupons and receipts issued to the people concerned and entry of every single coupon and receipt is to be made,†said Bansal.
He said there are several levels of authorities starting from the campaign head, followed by state head, district head, tehsil head, block head, locality head and then the team head. All these levels coordinate with each other and ensure transparency at every level. He added that the campaign was the world’s biggest ever fund collection drive and it went on without any hiccup or untoward incident, which is a major achievement.
Last year in December, Trust General Secretary Champat Rai had said the 44-day campaign is planning to reach at least 55 crore people, 11 crore families and 5 lakh villages in every corner of the country, including states like Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Andaman Nicobar, and Tripura.
