In a first-of-its-kind step, the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) has decided to appoint a person from the Scheduled Tribe community as a part-time temple priest.
The temple board, which is under the state government, will appoint a person from the ST community as priest.
"Eighteen men from Scheduled Caste (SC) and one from Scheduled Tribes (ST) will be recommended for the appointment as part-time priests in Travancore Devaswom Board. "This is for the first time that an individual from ST community is being appointed as the temple priest,"?Kerala Devaswam Minister Kadakampally Surendran?wrote in a Facebook post.
There were four vacancies for the ST quota but only one person turned up.
"As per a rank list published in 2017, 310 people have been chosen for the post of part-time priests in the Travancore Devaswom Board. As there were not sufficient candidates from SC/ST category for the examination, a separate rank list was prepared as per the special notification for SC/ST," he added.