Donations can be made online, says trust building Ram temple in Ayodhya

Even though the campaign to collect funds for the construction of the Ram Temple is Ayodhya has ended, people can still make financial contributions online, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) said on Saturday.

However, foreign donors will have to wait till the Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust – responsible for collecting funds and building the temple – is yet to get registration under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).

“We have succeeded in achieving our goal of ‘Samarpan’ in 4,00,000 villages. Contact was also made in all the wards of urban areas. Although the statistics of families contacted are yet to come in, it is estimated that we have liaised with about 100 million families and Samarpan (contributions) have been received from every quarter and walk of life,” the Trust’s general secretary, Champat Rai, said. According to Rai, the donation campaign received a very enthusiastic response across the country.

“Devotees from outside Bharat are requested to wait a little more. They will be notified upon completion of FCRA formalities,” Rai said.

Rai said that during the campaign, about 9 lakh karyakartas (volunteers) split up in 1.75 lakh teams and went door-to-door to collect donations. The contributions were deposited in banks through 38,125 karyakartas. To maintain transparency, while 49 control rooms were working across the country, 23 qualified karyakartas led by two chartered accountants at the main centre in Delhi, were constantly monitoring the accounts, Rai claimed.

“The app, created by Dhanusha Infotech Company of Hyderabad, did a commendable job as a meticulously-built digital network to act as a digital bridge among the karyakartas, banks and the trust,” Rai said.

He said that even though the final figures are yet to come, it can be said, based on the bank receipts till February 4, that the contributions would cross Rs 2,500 crore. This month, an audit of the campaign in every district of the country would also be completed, Rai said.