Staff Reporter :
“The Ram Mandir will be built in Ayodhya through people’s participation. We have planned to reach to 11 crore families in four lakh towns in the country and ask for donations for the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya,” said Govind Dev Giri Maharaj, Treasurer of Shriram Janmabhoomi Teerthkshetra Trust. Addressing a press conference here on Monday at the Press Club, Govind Dev Giri Maharaj said, “The Shri Ram Mandir in Ayodhya was demolished in 1528. The Shriram Janmabhoomi freedom movement has completed five centuries and more than three lakh devotees of Lord Rama sacrificed their lives to rebuild the temple of Lord Ram in Ayodhya.
Now, the day has come when the ardent devotees of Lord Ram could fulfil their long cherished dream of construction of Ram Mandir. The trust has decided not to take donations from the Governments as well as any businessman. The temple will be built through participation of each and every person in India. Let the common man or the last person of this country should feel proud for his smallest participation in the construction of Shri Ram Temple.” Giri said, “The temple will be completed within three to three and half years. The construction committee has asked the experts from IIT Roorkee, IIT Mumbai, IIT Chennai, IIT Guwahati, IIT Delhi, CBRI Roorkee, Larsen and Toubro and Tata to finalise the drawing of a strong foundation of the structure of the temple. After receiving the reports of these experts the decision to construct the temple will be taken.
The structure of foundation would be decided. No cement pillars would be used. The complete temple would be built with stone and each floor would be for 20 ft high, 360 ft long and 235 ft wide.” The construction of the temple will require Rs 300 crore to Rs 400 crore and the development of entire premises along with the temple will require Rs 1,100 crores. To raise the amount required for the completion of Ram Mandir, the trust has started a nationwide fund raising and house to house contact campaign from January 15 to February 28, he added. Vidarbha Prant, Shriram Janmabhoomi Teerthakshetra Nidhi Samarpan and Gruha Samparka Campaign will be held under the leadership of Govind Shende. Devnathpeethadhishwar Jitendranath Maharaj is a president of the Vidarbha prant committee and Chief of the Vidarbha Prant Campaign is Govind Shende.
The committee for Nagpur city for implementation of the campaign has been formed under the leadership of Bhagirath Maharaj while Prashant Titare is the city chief of the campaign. The committees formed would collect the funds with help of donation coupons of Rs 10, Rs 100 and Rs 1000 and receipt books for higher donations. The volunteers will go house to house and collect the funds. With the help of coupons, the picture of Shri Ram Mandir would reach to every person in the society, Shende stated. Prant Campaign Chief, Govind Shende; City vice president of the campaign committee, Rajesh Loya; joint chief, Ravindra Bokare; Nagpur city chief of the campaign, Prashant Titare, campaign promotion chief, Niranjan Risaldar, treasurer, Vinay Changde also were present at the press conference.