A hundred crore rupees and thirteen thousand villages — that is the scale Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann is putting behind the 650th Prakash Purab of Sri Guru Ravidas Ji. Addressing a congregation of devotees on Monday, 10 August 2026, Mann announced that the Punjab Government has already set aside the budget and is rolling out a state-wide digital outreach to bring the saint-poet's teachings to every corner of the state.

₹100 crore earmarked, and the clock is running

Speaking directly to the sangat (congregation), CM Mann made clear this is not a promise on paper — the ₹100 crore budget is already allocated. The funds are dedicated to events and activities commemorating the 650th birth anniversary of Sri Guru Ravidas Ji, the 15th-century saint-poet whose bani (sacred verse) forms part of the Guru Granth Sahib and who remains the spiritual anchor of the Ravidassia community across Punjab and beyond.

13,000 villages, one screen at a time

The centrepiece of the outreach plan is a network of LED screens deployed across approximately 13,000 villages in all 23 districts of Punjab. Through these screens, rural residents will be connected to the bani and life philosophy of Guru Ravidas Ji — bringing the Prakash Purab into spaces that large central gatherings cannot reach. It is a deliberate bet on digital infrastructure as a tool of cultural and spiritual inclusion.

Punjab governments have long supported commemorations of saints and gurus through state-funded events, but the LED screen network represents a meaningful escalation in scale and technological ambition. The approach mirrors broader trends in government-led digital outreach across rural India, applied here to a deeply felt religious milestone.

Who Guru Ravidas Ji was — and why 650 matters

Sri Guru Ravidas Ji, born in the 15th century, was a saint, poet, and social reformer whose verses preached equality, devotion, and the rejection of caste hierarchy. His bani — included in the Guru Granth Sahib — continues to shape the spiritual identity of millions, particularly within the Ravidassia community concentrated in Punjab's Doaba region and among its diaspora. The 650th Prakash Purab is therefore not a routine anniversary; it is a generational milestone that carries deep emotional and social weight for a large section of Punjab's population.

The eyes now turn to implementation — whether the LED screen network goes live ahead of the main Prakash Purab events, and what district-level programming the ₹100 crore ultimately funds. For the devotees in those 13,000 villages, the measure of this pledge will be what lights up on the screen.