The trust set up to oversee the construction of a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya started a nationwide drive on Friday for collecting funds, with President Ram Nath Kovind making the first contribution of ₹5 lakh.
Mr. Kovind, along with his family, donated a cheque for ₹5,00,100 to a delegation of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.
The President donated in his personal capacity, said Alok Kumar, international working president of the VHP, which has been mandated to collect the funds for the temple.
The target was to reach 65 crore people across the country, he told presspersons.
In Rae Bareli district of Uttar Pradesh, Surendra Singh, who had contested the Assembly election, donated a sum of ₹1.11 crore. “I donated on the call of my aatma and it has been a tradition of my family to donate,” he said at the event attended by Champat Rai, the general secretary of the trust.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan handed over a cheque for ₹1 lakh to the VHP delegation. “Not just a Ram Mandir, this is in reality a Rashtra Mandir. Ram is our existence,” Mr. Chouhan said in a tweet as he shared pictures of the meeting.
