Ever since 2017 when the Kerala Devaswom Recruitment Board began recruiting priests beyond considerations of their caste, the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) has recruited 272 priests and the Cochin Devaswom Board (CDB) has recruited 128 priests, Dewaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran told the Assembly on Wednesday.
Out of this, 12 priests in temples under the TDB and 11 in temples under the CDB were from the Scheduled Castes while the number of priests from the Other Backward Castes were 83 and 25 respectively.
Special notification
Since there were not enough Scheduled Caste candidates to fill the priest vacancies under the TDB, it has been decided to issue a special notification calling for recruitment from these categories to the 18 posts.
As part of the reservation being provided for forward caste candidates from economically backward backgrounds, six were recruited to the posts of lower division clerk/sub-group officer grade II in the TDB.
The board had now implemented a recruitment management software called ‘Devajalika’ through which aspirants could register online and the board could process the applications and prepare the rank list transparently.
Rank lists having 939 applicants for various posts in the TDB, 975 applicants in the CDB, and 61 applicants in the Malabar Dewaswom Board had been published already, the Minister said.
The recruitment from this rank list was going on. In addition, steps for appointment to 21 posts in the Guruvayur Dewaswom Board had begun, said the Minister.
