Southern States - Karnataka   

Govt.'s silence on KPSC report surprising

By Anil Sastry

BANGALORE JAN. 31. This can happen only in Karnataka. The Government hesitates to take disciplinary action against two officers whom a constitutional body has found guilty of misconduct. One of the officers, belonging to the All India cadre, has even gone to the Press denying the charges made against him and has levelled charges against the head of a constitutional body, violating the service rules. After perceiving possible contempt action by the constitutional authority and action by the Government, he later denied having levelled charges against the authority.

With all these developments and despite the direction from the Governor seeking a report on the episode, the Government is unmoved. Viewed in this context, the recent statement of the Chief Minister that stringent action would be initiated against delinquent officers was apparently meant to be only a statement.

The conduct of the officer and the inaction of the Government relate to the recent disclosure by the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) that its then Secretary had facilitated malpractice in the evaluation of answer scripts of the KAS 1998 Main Examination.

The KPSC, based on the inquiry and after hearing its then Secretary, A.K.Monnappa (now the Deputy Commissioner, Dakshina Kannada), recommended to the Government in November 2002 to initiate disciplinary action against him, as well as K.Rameshwarappa, a State Service officer, who was found guilty of indulging in malpractice. While Mr. Monnappa was the Private Secretary to the Chief Minister for a year from 2000, Mr. Rameshwarappa is the Deputy Director of Food and Civil Supplies, Mandya, the Home District of the Chief Minister. Apart from Mr. Rameshwarappa, his brother-in-law, B.S.Nagaraj, sisters-in-law, B.S.Triveni and B.S.Hemalatha, were also beneficiaries of the malpractice. The then Chief Secretary, A.Ravindra, forwarding the recommendation of the KPSC to the Chief Minister, endorsed disciplinary action against the officers. He had recommended either to keep the officers under suspension or to direct them to go on leave till the inquiry was completed.

The Government has not taken any action so far.

Mr. Monnappa held a press conference on December 5 in Mangalore denying the charges levelled against him.

Apart from these, Mr. Monnappa reportedly alleged, at Gonikoppa in Kodagu, that the KPSC Chairman, H.N.Krishna, "was hiding some facts". The allegations appeared in a section of the Press on Tuesday. Later, he denied the report.

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