India, June 30 -- The alleged theft of donations at the Ram temple in Ayodhya has brought serious deficiencies in the management of one of India's largest religious cash collection exercises into sharp focus even as investigators allege that institutional safeguards failed despite the temple receiving Rs.82.78 crore in offerings within 11 months and administering trust funds worth thousands of crores.

A comparison with three of Uttar Pradesh's largest temple trusts-Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi, Krishna Janmabhoomi in Mathura and Banke Bihari temple in Vrindavan-shows that all three have institutionalised stronger systems of financial accountability, including magistrate-supervised counting, CCTV-monitored cash handling, documented...