BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh chief minister Dr Mohan Yadav chaired the first meeting of Shri Ramchandra Path Gaman Trust in Hindu pilgrimage town of Chitrakoot in Satna district on Tuesday.
The 33-member trust is the apex body which was constituted following cabinet decision of the previous BJP regime headed by Shivraj Singh Chouhan in the state in May 2023, forms integral part of state’s commitment to develop Ramchandra Path Gaman/Ram Van Gaman Path areas on the route which is believed to have been travelled by the Lord Ram-Sita-Lakshman during the trinity’s exile period.
The meeting assumed significance as it was held just six days before the Ram Temple consecration ceremony in neighbouring UP’s Ayodhya and just a few months before the next Lok Sabha polls. At the meeting, the MP CM announced that the Satna district’s religious town of Chitrakoot (representing the Tapobhoomi of Lord Ram-Sita-Lakshaman in exile period) will be developed on the lines of Ayodhya.
“All sites, including Chitrakoot, which form part of the Ram Bhagwan Path Gaman Marg (route in MP which was travelled by the holy trinity) will be developed in phases. A detailed action plan would be drawn and implemented in phases. The development plan will include infrastructural development and aspects related to creating religious awareness, spiritual development and facets related to Ram Katha,” the CM said.
He also instructed the officials to prominently exhibit information on the Ram Van Path Gaman development at the Deepawali-Amavasya Fair in Chitrakoot later this year.
The idea was mooted first reportedly by the then Satna district BJP president Pusphendra Pratap Singh in 2004, after discussing it with the scholars of the Sri Ram Cultural Research Institute, New Delhi. Singh wrote letters to the then CM Uma Bharti, besides state’s panchayat and rural development minister Narendra Singh Tomar. However, the formal announcement to develop the Ram Van Gaman Path at `56 crore cost for initial phase was made three years later by then CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Chitrakoot town only in 2007.
Since then, the project has been more in government files and less on ground.