Ayodhya’s Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust has appointed retired Air Marshal Jitendra Mishra as its first full-time Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Additionally, three new members—Madan Mohan Pandey, Mahesh Bhagchandka, and Dr. Nirmala Yadav have been inducted to fill vacant positions within the Trust.
Jitendra Mishra served in the Indian Air Force for over 38 years and successfully led ‘Operation Sindoor’ as the head of the Western Air Command in January 2025. An alumnus of prestigious institutions like the National Defence Academy (NDA) in Pune and the Royal College of Defence Studies in the UK, Mishra has also been an outstanding Fighter Combat Leader and Chief Test Pilot with over 3,000 flying hours of experience.
Amidst the organizational changes following the resignation of former General Secretary Champat Rai and other members due to controversies surrounding temple donations, the selection committee chose Mishra out of 5,585 applicants for this crucial post, aiming to ensure professional administration, accountability, and transparency within the Trust.
While the new team will naturally operate according to its own methods, I have a few suggestions regarding the management of offerings and donations. I hope these suggestions reach the team:
- Temple funds are not managed effectively either under government control (where money is often wasted) or in private trusts (where there is a risk of theft). Therefore, a new and secure system is required.
- Instead of dropping cash into donation boxes, all donations should be made via UPI (like Google Pay, PhonePe) or other digital mediums. This will ensure that every single penny is accounted for and prevent theft.
- The vacant land, unused buildings, and gold kept in vaults belonging to the temples should be utilized to generate revenue (similar to how the Tirupati temple melts down donated gold). Without touching the original ornaments of the deity, income from the remaining assets should be maximized.
- The donations and asset-generated income of all major temples should be pooled together to create a mega fund, which I propose naming ‘DEVA’.
- Instead of locking daily donations in vaults, the funds should be continuously invested (via SIPs) in good, secure mutual funds in the stock market so that the capital keeps growing.
- The responsibility for managing this fund should not be given to politicians or government bureaucrats, but rather to experienced finance and investment experts.
- There must be a strict legal firewall around this fund to ensure that no minister, politician, or government official can access the money.
- The most important rule should be that no one ever touches the principal invested amount (Main Fund). Only the earnings (interest or profit) generated from that money should be utilized.
- A fixed portion of this profit should be allocated for temple maintenance, daily operational expenses, and providing respectable salaries to the priests.
- The remaining portion of the profit should be used for social welfare initiatives (such as hospitals and schools) and to support small or financially struggling temples that do not receive enough donations to cover their expenses. (The Central Government could enact legislation to implement this on a nationwide scale.)