Madhya Pradesh (MP) government has planned to conduct general knowledge competition on the basis of Ramayana, a Sanskrit epic.
Usha Thakur, the state's Minister for Tourism, Culture and Spirituality said that the winners of the competition will get a chance to travel to Uttar Pradesh's Ayodhya by air at free cost, PTI reported. A grand Ram temple is under construction in Ayodhya.
Quoting the minister, an official statement from the government stated that the competition is set to be held at national and international levels.
"The winners of the competition will get an opportunity to travel by air to Ayodhya," MP government's statement said, as quoted by PTI
Government Yet To Announce a Date for the Competition
The statement however did not reveal when the competition would be held and how many winners would be chosen.
Minister Thakur made this announcement on Sunday evening even as she inaugurated another general knowledge competition at Dr B R Ambedkar University of Social Science in Indore.
The competition held by the state's culture department was based on instances shown in ‘Ayodhya Kand’, a chapter in Tulsidas' Ramcharitmanas. According to the government, the Sunday's competition will select eight people, including four students from every district in the state.
During the event, the minister also inaugurated a picture exhibition on Shabari, a character from Ramayana.
In September, Mohan Yadav, the state's higher education minister, had said that Ramcharitmanas will be offered as an elective subject under Arts stream for first year students at all the state colleges and universities.
In this year's budget too, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in MP has set aside Rs 1 crore to prepare a detailed project report and feasibility report for the ‘Ram Van Gaman Path’ project. The project reportedly aims to retrace the path used by "Lord Ram on his way to exile".
The project will be built from Chitrakoot to Amarkantak via the districts of Satna, Shahdol, Mandla, Panna, Amanganj, Jabalpur, Dindori, and Katni. It will be undertaken jointly by the MP Spirituality Department and MP Road Development Corporation.
The Congress too in its poll manifesto, put out before last MP Assembly elections, had announced its plan regarding the Ram Van Gaman Path project.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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