Ram temple donation row: No rules, manual for 1500 Trust employees
Some people associated with the trust have raised the question whether character verification of employees working in the Ram temple complex was done by police before their appointment
Amid SIT probe into the Ram temple donation theft controversy, questions are now being raised as to why the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Khetra Trust did not frame rules or a manual for appointing around 1500 employees and paying their salaries, even though rules and a manual exist for appointing priests.

“Like manuals for priests, what service rules were framed for the rest of the employees and fixation of their salary?” asked a Trust employee who did not wish to be named.
“Several crores must have been spent on wages of 1,500 employees. Details of income-expenditure along with revenue expense and assets under separate heads were presented in meetings, which the trustees kept approving. However, the question of service rules for these employees was never raised,” he added.
The religious committee of Ram temple, chaired by trust treasurer Govind Dev Giri, has already framed a manual for about a dozen priests.
Some people associated with the trust have raised the question whether character verification of employees working in the Ram temple complex was done by police before their appointment, according to the person quoted above.
The increasing influence of Ram Shankar Yadav ‘Tinnu’, one of the eight men arrested in the case—from a sevadar (volunteer) to a powerful person in temple management and a trusted aide of Champat Rai—went unnoticed even by the trustees, he said.
In the last six years, about two dozen meetings of the 15-member executive committee of the trust were mandatorily held every fourth month. Almost all executive committee members attended the meetings physically or virtually.
ABOUT THE AUTHORPawan DixitPawan Dixit, Assistant Editor, brings over 20 years of frontline reporting experience to the newsroom. A specialist on Uttar Pradesh politics and governance, he has reported from the ground across the state’s most consequential stories. He cut his teeth in eastern UP, spending 15 years covering the region. Based in Varanasi, he reported the 2012 UP Assembly polls and the 2014 Lok Sabha elections that reshaped the state’s political map. Moving to Lucknow in 2016, he has since led coverage of the 2017 and 2022 UP Assembly elections and the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. His reporting tracks the BJP’s strategy, opposition moves, and voter sentiment across all 75 districts. Pawan has been a constant presence in Ayodhya since 2016. He reported the entire arc of the Ram Mandir movement — from the legal fight to the Supreme Court verdict, through temple construction, to the inauguration. He continues to track every development at the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust. On the state beat, he covers the BJP, the Industrial Development Department, and handles key outstation political assignments. He also reports major cases from the district court, Lucknow bench of the High Court, and the State Information Commission. Along with this, he also reports on NGT's important decisions related to UP. Known for sharp sourcing and clear analysis, Pawan connects politics, policy, infrastructure and faith — the forces driving UP today. He has reported developments in Ayodhya and Ram Mandir movement since 2016. The Supreme Court's Ram Mandir verdict, temple construction and the its opening have been reported by him. He reports all developments in Ayodhya and Ram Mandir Trust. He covers state BJP, Industrial development department, outstation political assignments, reports special cases from district court, high court and state information commissionRead More

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