Lucknow: The Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF) Trust, which is overseeing the construction of the Mosque in Ayodhya, has submitted its application for Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) account at State Bank of India (SBI) in Delhi. Once approved, the account will pave the way for foreign funding to the project which will also have a 300-bed hospital in the area.
The IICF will also not be crowdfunding for the entire project, but will gather funds from identified donors. IICF spokesperson Athar Husain said, "The 300-bed hospital is IICF's main goal and while we had envisioned the need for it back in 2020 itself, the pandemic has made our resolve stronger. Almost 95 per cent of our project cost and infrastructure paraphernalia is for the hospital alone."
After the FCRA account is registered in IICF's name, the Trust will then move ahead to get clearances from the Ministry of Home Affairs, as is the norm, before the project can begin on ground. However, officials said that the project will kick off on ground by year end.
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The hospital will also come up with a community kitchen to feed around 1,000 people every day, a green patch with exotic trees on the verge of extinction from around the world in Ayodhya, and a museum-library highlighting the shared Hindu-Muslim struggle of 1857 in Awadh against the British. Subsequently, the Mosque that will come up in Dhannipur village as part of the complex, will be almost the same size as that of the Babri Masjid.
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IICF spokesman further said that, "There will be no crowdfunding. We have donors already waiting." The state government has allotted five acres of land as per the Supreme Court directive, in lieu of the demolished mosque in Ayodhya.
"We are looking for experts, skilled in setting up charitable hospitals and they will be involved in setting up the hospital from the scratch, like a turn-key project. For this we have identified some groups in the Gulf countries and in Mumbai but more discussions have to be held physically before we put a stamp on it," said the spokesman.
IANS
