Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

TDB holds interview amid protests

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A tense situation prevailed at the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) headquarters here on Friday morning when interview for lower division clerks was held.

Board sources said that interview for 91 candidates was scheduled for two days. While TDB president C.K. Guptan and member P.K. Sumathy Kutty Amma reached the office for the interview, another member P. Narayanan chose to keep off. As many as 21 candidates were present for the interview.

Eight candidates were interviewed while protest was raging outside the office.

Though a huge posse of police were posted to avoid untoward incidents, a group of Democratic Youth Federation of India activists rushed to the office and staged a dharna before the president’s office. All India Youth Federation activists also attempted to storm the office.

The youth activists raised corruption charges against the Board and said that Mr. Guptan and Ms.Sumathy Kutty were trying to select candidates who were short-listed by the previous Board which had allegedly taken huge amounts from them.

Bharatiya Janata Party workers also marched to the office, but they were stopped at the gate.

After interviewing eight candidates, Mr. Guptan fell ill and was taken to hospital. A Board release later said that the interview of the remaining candidates had been postponed and the new date and time would be announced later.

Earlier, Mr. Guptan told reporters that he was conducting the interview as per the decision of the Board and also to avert contempt of court proceedings against the Board.

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