JOIN USChief Minister Siddaramaiah is understood to have come under pressure by a section of ministers at the Cabinet meeting on Thursday not to reject the final list of 362 candidates selected by the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) for the posts of Group ‘A’ and ‘B’ gazetted probationers, notified in 2011.
According to sources, Revenue Minister V Sreenivasa Prasad and Social Welfare Minister H Anjaneya are learnt to have stated that rejecting the list would render injustice to candidates not involved in the scam.
The issue had come up before the Cabinet twice during the last one month, but no decision was taken following differences of opinion.
However, on Thursday,Siddaramaiah is said to have remained firm that the list will have to be rejected to send a message that the government will not tolerate malpractice and corruption in KPSC. If the government did not take a firm and hard decision, it could result in a repeat of similar scams, Siddaramaiah is learnt to have told his colleagues.
One minister is said to have told Siddaramaiah that a majority of the candidates selected were from the SC/ST and OBC categories, including 43 candidates from the chief minister’s Kuruba community. Rejecting the list would be against social justice, he was told. However, Siddaramaiah stuck to his ground, the sources said.
Hidden Ahinda agenda
JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy dubbed the Cabinet decision on the KPSC selections heartless, inhuman and that it was nothing but the hidden Ahinda agenda advocated by Siddaramaiah.
Following the Cabinet decision to reject the KPSC’s selection of 362 candidates, Kumaraswamy promised the agitating candidates at Freedom Park that he would take up their cause at the appropriate forum. The former chief minister said, “The law minister says that finally, court will decide the fate of the exam results. If that is the case, why did the Cabinet take a decision to do away with the selections?
This is a clear case of pushing the Ahinda agenda of this government.” However, he did not explain as to how the agenda gets a boost from the cancellation of the list. Kumaraswamy said the government should have had sympathy and patience while handling the issue because the interests and careers of several youngsters were involved.
“Why should the candidates who committed no fault be penalised in the name of setting the system right? Till a couple of aspirants go to the extreme step of consuming poison, the government will not wake up. This happened in the sugarcane price issue.”