By IANS
Thiruvananthapuram : The on-going tug of war between members of the Travancore Devasom Board (TDB), which oversees affairs of temples in southern Kerala, and the Kerala government reached a new low Sunday with Devasom Minister G. Sudhakaran asking members to quit.
“TDB president (C.K.) Guptan has already expressed his desire to quit on three occasions. Things have reached a point of no return and either the high court or the Left Democratic Front (LDF) should intervene to end the impasse,” Sudhakaran told reporters in Alapuzha.
The TDB comprises three members, including its president C.K. Guptan and two others P. Narayanan and Sumathikutty Amma.
Sudhakaran and Guptan have been at loggerheads with the other two members and things became worse when Sudhakaran last month announced a vigilance probe into the functioning of Narayanan and Sumathikutty.
Since then it has been a free for all with Guptan walking out from at least two board meetings.
Another fracas occurred last week when Guptan suspended an official of the Travancore Devasom and a few days later the other two members revoked the order.
Even a Kerala High Court advice that the TDB members and officials should work “as a team in cooperation and not in confrontation” has fallen on deaf ears.
The LDF government last year had appointed the present board.
While Guptan is a Communist Party of India-Marxist nominee and son-in-law of legendary communist leader E.M.S. Nampoothiripad, Narayanan is a former Communist Party of India legislator and Sumathikutty a nominee of the Revolutionary Socialist Party.