Ram Temple Trust Revamps Donation Counting System, Removes 36 Staff Members

Following the disclosure of a theft case at the world-famous Ram Temple in Ayodhya, the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust has introduced major changes to its donation management system. In the wake of the incident and the attention it received, the Trust has removed all 36 employees who were responsible for counting cash donations. The Trust has now restructured the entire cash donation counting process in collaboration with the State Bank of India (SBI). Earlier, the counting work was carried out by employees appointed through a private agency. However, those personnel have now been relieved of their duties, and the responsibility for counting donations has been officially assigned to SBI. Under the new system, only permanent employees of the State Bank of India will be authorized to count the cash offerings received at the temple. For this purpose, SBI has deployed staff members from its various branches. According to the Trust, the new arrangement is expected to improve transparency and make the entire donation counting process more accountable. Sources said that all 36 employees associated with the donation counting work have now been removed from their responsibilities. The Trust had initially relieved 23 employees, followed by the remaining 13, effectively ending the role of the entire team that had been handling cash donations for several years. The Trust has also clarified that the eight individuals arrested in connection with the donation theft case were not among these 36 employees. Despite this, the Trust decided to overhaul the entire system rather than take action against any specific individual, aiming to strengthen the overall donation management process.