A permanent, tamper-proof and publicly transparent way to count Ram Mandir offerings
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Respected Shri Nripendra Mishra ji,
nripendra.mishra@gmail.com
nkmishra@bhu.ac.in
Please accept my pranam.
Like crores of devotees, I have followed with concern the recent questions raised
about the counting of offerings at the Shri Ram Mandir. I write not to add to the
noise, but to place before you a constructive, immediately implementable
suggestion — offered in the spirit of strengthening the very faith that built this
temple.
The root of the present difficulty, I respectfully submit, is structural rather than
personal. As long as cash is counted manually by a large number of staff — sorted
by denomination, totalled, re-totalled and then physically transferred — the
process will remain slow, error-prone and, however honest the individuals,
perpetually open to suspicion. No amount of supervision can fully close a gap that
the design itself leaves open. The remedy is to remove the human hand from the
act of counting altogether.
The technology to do this is mature, off-the-shelf, and already in daily use in our
banks and RBI currency chests. I propose the following system:
1. Machine counting.
Devotees' notes are fed into bank-grade bulk note-processing machines, the same
class used by currency chests and cash-management companies. These count at
around a thousand notes per minute, automatically identify each denomination
from its physical features, and flag counterfeits — with no manual tallying.
2. A serial-number audit trail.
Each machine records the unique serial number of every note it processes,
timestamped and stored irreversibly. This creates a complete forensic ledger —
every single note traceable — which makes substitution or pilferage after counting
effectively impossible.
3. Live public display.
The running total of each box, and the dynamically changing grand total, are
shown on large screens within the counting hall — much like a scoreboard.
Counting becomes a public, witnessed act in real time. This single feature would
place the Ram Mandir ahead of every other temple in the country on transparency.
4. A parallel track for jewellery and coins.
Gold, silver and ornaments are weighed, hallmark-logged and video-inventoried at
the point of opening; coins are processed on dedicated coin-counting machines.
Note-counters alone cannot account for these, and any complete system must
address them explicitly.
5. Unbroken chain of custody.
Hundi boxes are sealed with tamper-evident seals, opened only under dual-person
custody, and moved to the counting machines under continuous CCTV — so that
the one remaining human step, between box and machine, is itself fully
accountable.
It may interest you to know that even Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams — the gold
standard in our country — already counts by machine under AI-monitored CCTV
in its Parakamani building. Yet even Tirupati does not display a live public grand
total. The Shri Ram Mandir, consecrated only in 2024, need not inherit a manual
system that centuries-old Tirupati has already outgrown. It can, in fact, leapfrog
Tirupati and set the new national benchmark.
The equipment is inexpensive and widely available; the gains in speed, accuracy,
and — above all — in restoring devotees' complete confidence, would be
immense.
I am 92 years old and have spent a working lifetime on questions of institutional
process and reform. I place this suggestion before you with no expectation other
than that it be useful. Should the Committee wish, I would be glad to elaborate
on any part of it.
With deepest respect and best wishes for the great work you are leading,
Hemen Parekh
Mumbai
www.hemenparekh.ai | www.hemenparekh.in
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