“Winners will get an opportunity to travel by air to Ayodhya,” the statement quoting the minister said

Bhopal:

The BJP government in Madhya Pradesh will hold a general knowledge competition based on the Hindu epic ”Ramayana” and winners will get a chance to travel by air to Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya, where a grand Ram temple is being constructed, MP’s Tourism, Culture and Spirituality Minister Usha Thakur has said.

A general knowledge competition based on the ”Ramayana” will be organised at national and international levels, an official statement on Sunday said quoting the minister.

“The winners of the competition will get an opportunity to travel by air to Ayodhya,” the statement said, without divulging when the competition would be held and how many winners would be selected.

Ms Thakur made the announcement while inaugurating another general knowledge competition based on instances of value creation depicted in ”Ayodhya Kand”, one of the chapters of the epic ”Ramcharitmanas”, at Dr BR Ambedkar University of Social Science in Mhow town of Indore district on Sunday evening.

A total of eight people, including four students, will be selected from each district of the state on the basis of the competition which the minister inaugurated on Sunday. It is being organised by Madhya Pradesh’s culture department.

On the occasion, Ms Thakur also inaugurated a picture exhibition on Shabri, a character from ”Ramayana” who was an ardent devotee of Lord Ram.

Mandakini Ramkinkar, a scholar who delivers discourse on ”Ramayana” and other prominent citizens were also present at the event.

Last month, MP’s Higher Education Minister Mohan Yadav had announced that the first-year students of graduation courses in state colleges and universities will be offered the epic ”Ramcharitmanas” as an elective subject under philosophy discipline in the art stream.

The MP government has in this year’s state budget also earmarked a sum of Rs one crore for the preparation of feasibility and detailed project reports of the ”Ram Van Gaman Path” project, which seeks to retrace the route taken by Lord Ram on his way to exile.

The project will be undertaken by the Madhya Pradesh Spirituality Department and MP Road Development Corporation and constructed from Chitrakoot to Amarkantak through Satna, Panna, Amanganj, Katni, Jabalpur, Mandla, Dindori and Shahdol districts.

During the last MP Assembly elections, the Congress in its poll manifesto had also announced the implementation of the Ram Van Gaman Path project in the state.