Signatures of 3 people, monitoring of 43 people on counting of offerings…what will change in Ram Mandir Trust?

After the alleged theft of offerings in Ram temple, SIT investigation, FIR, 8 arrests and resignation of Champat Rai, Anil Mishra, major administrative changes started in the trust. Actually, after this matter came to light, questions were raised on the role of the management and its officials in the trust. In such a situation, after the meeting of the Trust officials on July 06, preparations are being made to promote professional management, appointment of CEO and strengthening financial monitoring. The first step for this has already been taken.

Till now, the General Secretary of the Trust was handling the administrative and operational responsibilities of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi area. Now that Champat Rai has left the post, Krishna Mohan has been appointed in his place as interim general secretary. The biggest challenge for them is to restore people’s confidence in the transparency and accountability of the Trust.

What decisions were taken regarding the operation of bank accounts of Ram Temple?

• The biggest change the Trust has made is for the bank accounts of Ram Mandir. A committee of 3 people has been formed for its operation.
• Along with interim general secretary Krishna Mohan, his two colleagues Jagdish Afley and Chandan Rai have been included.
• Now for any financial transaction related to bank accounts, the signatures of these three will be required.
• Now banking related processes will not be completed with the signature of any one person.
• Till now trustee Anil Mishra was looking after the responsibility of banking system. Only his signature was valid in the bank.
• At the same time, the digital sign of Treasurer Govind Dev Giri was used.
• This decision of the Trust will increase transparency and accountability regarding financial transactions.

What changes did the Trust make regarding counting of offerings?

Many changes were also made by the Trust regarding the donation system. Now there will be multilayer monitoring to count these offerings. For this, 43 people will be present at the counting site. Also, new cameras have been installed around the counting sites where cameras were not installed. About 13 extra CCTV cameras have been installed. In fact, the Trust now wants to capture every activity on camera, from the donation box to counting the cash.

The duty of 27 SIS security personnel has been deployed to take the cash from the donation boxes to the counting venue. During this period, policemen will be deployed near every pillar between the counting site and the donation box. There are instructions for deployment of 3 policemen near the secret box kept near pillar number 34.

Arrangements like regular internal audit of offerings, external audit, digital accounting and online monitoring of payments are also being considered by the Trust, so that disputes of any kind of financial irregularities can be avoided in future.

Rules will be strict for outsourcing employees

Now the Trust is also going to be strict about the appointment of outsourcing employees deployed on duty in the campus. In fact, the role of outsourced employees was most questioned in the theft of offerings. In such a situation, rules like police verification and background check will be tightened for them. Besides, accountability of agencies will also be fixed in this regard.

Which model can be adopted for the operation of the Trust?

Many people associated with the trust have indicated in their statements that the trust can be run under a professional management model. For this, the arrangements of big temples of the country, especially institutions like Tirupati Balaji, can be studied. However, no official decision has been taken yet in this regard. But there is a preparation to run the Dir Administration not just like a religious institution but like a big institution, through which some changes can be brought about.

• SOP based methodology
• digital filing
• Human Resources (HR) System
• Clear division of responsibilities
• Periodic review of work

CEO may be appointed soon, what is the reason?

To ensure better functioning of the Ram temple and better monitoring of financial matters, a provision for appointment of a CEO in the trust can be introduced. The government is seriously considering this. With this, the functioning of the trust will be monitored by the government to some extent. Donations, purchases, contracts, staff and financial processes will be monitored under a defined administrative structure. Management of crowd and darshan will be better. Long projects for the temple can be tracked well. Besides, the burden on the trust will also be reduced.