Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala government on Monday decided to amend the statutes of Travancore, Cochin and Malabar temple boards making it mandatory for the Hindu MLAs to declare that they are believers for participating in the selection of nominees to the board from their electoral college.
The proposed amendment, to be issued as an ordinance, would mean that even the CPI(M) and CPI MLAs would have to declare that they "believed in God" in case they want to force contest for choosing one nominee each for the three Devaswom Boards, which manage most of the temples across the state.
As per the present rules, the Hindu legislators could nominate one member on each board and the remaining two members for the respective boards are chosen by the state cabinet.
The previous LDF Government had amended the rules dropping the "believer" clause from the acts concerned.
Briefing reporters, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said the cabinet decided to recommend the Governor for promulgation of the ordinance in this regard.
As part of this, relevant provisions in the Travancore- Cochin Hindu Religious Instutions Act and the Madras Religious Charitable Instituions Act (concerning temples in the Malabar region) would be amended.
PTI
First Published: Monday, October 22, 2012, 22:02