Ram Temple Trust removes 36 staff, shifts donation counting entirely to SBI employees

The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust has overhauled the system for counting cash offerings at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. In a major move, the Trust and the State Bank of India (SBI) have decided that only regular SBI employees will handle the counting of donations.

Now, the task of counting cash donations at the temple will no longer be entrusted to private agency employees, as it was previously. This responsibility has been completely transferred to regular employees of the SBI. According to sources, all 36 employees involved in counting donations have been removed.

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Initially, 23 employees were relieved, and now the remaining 13 have also been removed from duty. This marks the end of an entire team that had been in place for years. The eight accused arrested in the donation theft case were not among these 36 employees.

This means that the individuals accused of theft and the employees who were removed are different. Despite this, the Trust decided to overhaul the entire system rather than simply removing a few individuals.

Now, only regular employees of the SBI will count the cash donations received at the temple. These employees have been deployed from various branches of the bank. It is believed that this will increase transparency in the donation counting process and ensure accountability is directly within the banking system.

Sources indicate that the employees who were removed were not directly employed by the trust or the bank. They were hired as housekeeping staff through a private agency in Varanasi and later assigned to counting donations. They have now been asked to surrender their identity cards and uniforms, and have been instructed not to report for duty the following day.

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The dismissed employees said they were removed without notice. Meanwhile, the laid-off employees say they were not given a clear reason for their dismissal. They claim that the private agency was paid approximately 26,000 rupees per employee, while they were paid only 15,000 rupees per month.

They also claim they were not personally at fault, yet they were removed from their jobs without notice. Sources indicate that these employees will not be assigned to any other duties within the temple complex. This means their involvement with the donation management system has been completely terminated.

Sources say that many of the old contractors responsible for cleaning, maintenance, and other services within the temple complex are also being removed. The trust aims to replace the old operational network with a new one, ensuring stronger oversight and accountability for sensitive tasks.