Out of a total of 70 appointments, only 16 were from the upper castes. Out of the 54 appointments from the backward castes, 31 were in terms of merit
Cochin: The Cochin Devaswom Board is all set to appoint 54 non-Brahmins, including 34 Ezhavas and seven from the SC/ST community, as temple priests.
Devaswom minister Kadakampally Surendran wrote on his Facebook page, "The Kerala government has created history by appointing 54 non-Brahmin priests to the Cochin Devaswom Board including seven from SC/ST community.”
Out of a total of 70 appointments, only 16 were from the upper castes. Out of the 54 appointments from the backward castes, 31 were in terms of merit.
Out of the 34 selected from the Ezhava community, 27 were selected according to merit. And out of the seven people selected the from the SC/ST communities, two have been selected on merit. Apart from them, two people from the Dheevara community, and one each from the Hindu Nadar and Viswakarma communities were also selected on merit. Others were selected on the basis of reservation.
Earlier too, the government had appointed 36 non-Brahmins as temple priests, out of which six were Dalits, Surendran explained on his FB post.
The tests were conducted to select temple priests and they had to appear for an OMR test and interview by the Devaswom Recruitment Board.
* Image for representation purpose only.
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