For the first time in Kerala, a Scheduled Tribe (ST) priest will be stationed at a pilgrimage center managed by the Travancore Devasam Board, the apex temple governing body. Taking a historic initiative, the Kerala government has decided to appoint one ST and 18 Scheduled Castes (SC) part-time priests to the board that oversees around 1,200 shrines.
The state government will also deploy 18 SC priests in the Travancore Devasam Board
Let us know that the Travancore Devasam Board is an autonomous temple organization, which manages many famous shrines of this South Indian state including the Sabarimala temple of Lord Ayyappa. Kerala's Devasam Minister Kadakampally Surendran said in a Facebook post that the rank list for SC and ST category to fill the vacancies of part-time priests has been released on November 5 under a special notification.
He said, 310 people were selected in the rank list published on August 23, 2017, for the posts of part-time priests in the Travancore Devasam Board. A special notification was released on Thursday due to a lack of sufficient candidates at the time for the SC / ST category examination. The board has four ST category vacancies, but only one application was received.
815 recruits in three boards, 133 non-Brahmin priests
The minister said the Left Democratic Front (LDF) left the government had reconstituted the recruitment board after coming to power and so far has selected 815 candidates for various positions in the Travancore, Cochin, and Malabar Devasam boards. According to authorized sources, the state government has selected around 133 non-Brahmin priests in various temples during its four and a half year tenure.