Kerala temple bodies disbanded

Thiruvananthapuram -- The decision-making bodies of all temples in south Kerala stand disbanded with Governor R.L. Bhatia signing an ordinance Sunday.

The Travancore and Cochin Devasom Boards were disbanded after the governor inked the Travancore-Cochin Devasom Ordinance, approved by the state cabinet Wednesday.

The V.S. Achuthanandan government had decided to issue the ordinance by bringing in new amendments that were cleared by the Left Democratic Front (LDF) liaison committee meeting last month.

The new amendments include reducing the term of the boards from four years to two and having a woman member from the backward SC/ST communities.

Reacting to the new development, Travancore Devasom Board (TDB) president G. Raman Nair said that they would approach the Kerala High Court.

Nair and other members have already completed two years and hence they lose their job.

Special commissioner and senior bureaucrat K.K. Vijayakumar would take over the reigns of the boards' administration Monday.

Ever since the LDF government assumed office in May last year it has been allegedly creating problems for the boards of the TDB and the Cochin Devasom Board, appointed by the previous A.K. Antony government.

At the same time, there had been allegations of large-scale corruption in appointments and purchases made by the temple bodies.

Meanwhile leader of Hindu Aikya Vedi, Kummanam Rajasekharan said that it was only three days back that representatives of 72 Hindu organisations met and protested against the new amendments and asked the governor not to sign the ordinance.

"We will observe Monday as a black day because this is a blatant violation and an intrusion into the feelings of the Hindu community," said Rajasekharan.

But Nair Service Society (NSS), a body of the Hindu Nair community, has welcomed the ordinance.

"We are happy that finally this has happened after so many complaints were made about the way the boards were being run," said A. Sukumaran Nair, assistant secretary of the NSS.