Kerala Cabinet to table a Bill in Assembly to route DB jobs via PSC

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Cabinet on Wednesday decided to table a Bill in Assembly to route Devaswom Board appointments through Public Service Commission.

Barring priests and kazhakam, the recruitment for clerks, engineers and other staff will be routed through PSC. Devaswom Board will continue to appoint priests and kazhakams. The bill seeking amendment to the existing Devaswom Recruitment Act, will be introduced in the next Assembly session.

With the passing of the Bill the existing Devaswom Recruitment Board will become null and void. The PSC has already made it clear that it was prepared to take up the appointments of  Devaswom Boards.

The commission had made special rules and examined to facilitate recruitment. Once the commission gets the directive from the government the entire process would begin within no time.

The commission had made it clear that the appointments through PSC would not be against Hindu religious practices. While the appointments of priests would still be carried out by Devaswom Boards, the commission will be handling posts of clerks, engineers and other staff.

According to commission sources, the process will in no way affect the religious practices, believers or their religious emotions. Since the applicants for these posts are Hindus and believers,  the recruitment through PSC should not be a problem.

It may be recalled that UDF government constituted Devaswom Recruitment Board through an ordinance in 2014. It brought all appointments in temples affiliated to Travancrore, Kochi , Guruvayur and Malabar Devaswom Boards and associated institutions under the Devaswom Recruitment Board.
The UDF Government had also granted Rs 2 crore for Devaswom Recruitment Board.

Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran had recently announced the decision to scrap the Devaswom Recruitment Board. He had pointed out that board was incurring wasteful expenditure and there was no need for having chief secretary rank officer as its chairman and principal secretary rank officials as members.

Reservation for differently abled: Cabinet decided to grant reservation to the differently abled in teaching posts in government aided schools and colleges. The differently abled will be able to avail 3 per cent reservation in such posts.
There are over 7000 aided schools and 152 aided colleges in the state.