thiruvananthapuram travancore devaswom board tdb has issued a directive to all temples under its control not to allow mass drills and other activities organized by rss on the temple premisesthough a restriction in this regard is already in place the new directive has come in the wake of reports that rss activities are still continuing in a few temples across the state the devaswom board has made it clear that other than the temple festivals and rituals the temple premises should not be used for any other purposes strict action will be taken against the officers who fail to comply with the order said the circular issued by the boardthe ldf government had also come out against rss using the temple premises for their physical training with or without weapons chief minister pinrayi vijayan himself had criticized rss for using the temple premises for their shakhas and physical trainingthe devaswom board officials said not just rss no organizations or political parties will be allowed to use temple premises for other purposes the deputy commissioners assistant commissioners administrative officers and subgroup officers of the board have been asked to take steps to ban such activities and report the same to the head office tdb had issued a similar directive in march 2021 too this was based on a complaint received by the board however it was found that a few tdb officials were supporting such activities in a few temples under the board there are 1242 temples under tdbthe move to ban rss activities in the temples had started in 2016 when the ldf government came to power the then government had issued a circular using the relevant sections of the kerala police act in the wake of complaints that rss was holding drills with or without weapons inside the temple premises however the directives as per the circular were not imposed strictly