Thiruvananthapuram: The Cochin Devaswom Board (CDB) is set to create history by appointing seven Scheduled Caste candidates as priests while recruiting 54 non-Brahmins to temples administered by them. Most of them - 31 out of 54 - qualified solely on the basis of merit.
The CDB has never appointed so many non-Brahmins as temple priests, even the recruitment of seven from the Scheduled Castes is a first in its history.
CDB recruiting board chief M Rajagopalan Nair said only 16 from the forward communities had the merit to qualify.
The list of 70 appointees in total was drawn up after conducting the optical mark recognition (OMR) test and interview on the lines of PSC (Public Service Commission) recruitment. The interview was conducted by a board that included prominent chief priests, especially those from the Tanrti Mandalam and the Tantri Samajam.
Twenty-seven of the 34 on the list from the Ezhava category have been chosen for their merit.
“The list was finalised without allowing any scope for corruption,” Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendransaid. “A merit list and the reservation list have been included.”
The Travancore Devaswom Board had earlier appointed 36 non-Brahmin priests, including six from the Scheduled Castes.
