'Govt not getting suitable Lokayukta candidates'

The State government is said to have been finding it difficult to pick suitable candidates for the posts of State Human Rights Commission chairperson and the Lokayukta, with the ghost of illegal land allotment haunting most of the candidates proposed so far, sources said.

The then Lokayukta Justice Shivaraj Patil was forced to resign in 2010 following allegations of illegal land allotment from a housing co-operative society. Similar allegations are being levelled against all the candidates, including Justice Bhaskar Rao, whose name was proposed by the government for the post recently.

Sources said the government had been looking for suitable people in various states to fill the two posts. Enquiries were made in Maharashtra, Odisha and other states for this purpose. But it has been difficult to find suitable candidates, sources added.

The post of State Human Rights Commission chairperson has been vacant since July last year.