Jana Sangram Parishath (JSP), National Committee for Protection of Natural Resources (NCPNR) and other organisations have resolved to launch a public movement seeking removal of T. Sham Bhat as chairman of Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC).
Addressing presspersons here on Wednesday, founder president of NCPNR and JSP S.R. Hiremath said that Mr. Sham Bhat, an official of questionable integrity and whose name had already figured in several cases of corruption, had been appointed as the KPSC chairman by Chief Minister Siddarmaiah-led Congress government and the organisations would launch a movement to get Mr. Bhat removed from the post.
Mr. Hiremath released documents pertaining to ‘re-do’ exercise by Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA), when Mr. Sham Bhat was its commissioner. “Following the High Court order regarding arbitrary and unexplained deletions from land acquisition for Arkavathi Layout, BDA submitted a re-modified scheme as per the court order. However, while preparing the list of lands to be excluded, instead of excluding 983.34 acres of land from acquisition, Mr Sham Bhat as BDA Commissioner submitted a re-modified scheme for 1,766 acres and 7 guntas. Nobody except the commissioner knows to on what basis the additional 782. 52 acres of land was excluded. The issue needs to be inquired into”, he said.
Showing a copy of the High Court order passed on July 10, 2009, by Justice V. Gopala Gowda, Mr. Hiremath said: “The High Court made strong observations against Mr. Bhat who was the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Member of Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board then. In fact, Justice Gopala Gowda had directed the Chairman of KIADB to conduct an enquiry against the first respondent (CEO, KIADB) as to how, why and on what basis he allotted the plot in question without placing the matter before the Board for consideration and take action against him. The High Court even warned him not to engage in said activities in future.”
Mr. Hiremath said that the organisations would urge the Chief Minister to conduct inquiry against Mr. Bhat and if no steps were taken, then they would launch a movement to pressurise the government.
