No foreign money, Ayodhya Ram temple to be built using domestic funds only: Trust

New Delhi: The Ram temple in Ayodhya will be constructed using domestic funds collected from the general public through a mass contact programme, Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Shetra Trust has announced.

Champat Rai, the general secretary of the trust, said that the trust doesn't have required approvals for accepting donations from abroad.

Underlining that the Ram temple would actually take the form of a "Rashtra temple", Rai also said that Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Shetra Trust is going to start the mass contact and contribution campaign across the country for the construction of the temple.

Rai said that the `Shri Ram Mandir Nidhi Samarpan` drive will run next year from January 15 to February 27. He stressed that the support of every Ram devotee from all over the country will be solicited for the grand temple to be built on the birthplace of Bhagwan Sri Rama in Ayodhya.

"For this, the Kkryakartas of Vishva Hindu Parishad will go from door to door with the venerated saints and the rest of the people of society. In this intensive and extensive campaign from the upcoming Makar Sankranti (January 15, 2021) to Magh-Purnima (February 27), VHP karyakartas would reach out to 110 million families of 400,000 villages of the country and propagate and flourish Ramatwa by connecting the common man directly with Shri Ram Janmabhoomi," Rai said.

Addressing a press conference in Delhi on Wednesday, Rai said photographs of the proposed new model of the temple will also reach crores of households through this campaign.

"Voluntary donations from Rambhakts (devotees of Lord Ram) will be accepted for which coupons of Rs 10, Rs 100 and Rs 1,000 will be made available," he said.

In order to maintain transparency in the financial dealings and transactions, the trust has printed 4 crore coupons of Rs 10 denomination, 8 crore coupons of Rs 100 and 12 lakhs coupons of Rs 1,000 denomination, he said.

Rai also said for the construction of the temple, no foreign funding can be collected as the trust doesn't have enough necessary approvals while CSR funds can be considered for adjoining buildings of the temple.

He further said no target has been fixed for collecting funds and no estimate has been made of expenditure for the construction of the temple.