Siddaramaiah orders probe into illegal recruitments at Karnataka Bhavan

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has ordered a probe into illegal recruitments done 14 years ago at Karnataka Bhavan in Delhi. 

It is learnt that nine persons were appointed subordinate staff without the State government’s approval. This is second such scandal which has hit Karnataka Bhavan. 

Recently, a senior Bhavan official was pulled up for taking his wife during an official rehabilitation and rescue assignment in Srinagar following devastating floods in Jammu and Kashmir. Despite three months since the chief minister ordered the probe, officials, strangely, have not taken substantial steps on the premise that original recruitment files were “missing”.

Though there was no approval from the State government for recruitment of subordinate staff in Karnataka Bhavan, nine peons were appointed through direct recruitment mode in 1999. Subsequently, three persons resigned and, in 2004, the remaining were promoted as clerk-cum-typist. Depending on their services left and performance, the six have been put on seniority list along with other staff for further elevation, whenever it happens.

The recruitment scam surfaced when a section of Bhavan employees, suspicious of their recruitment and promotional avenues, gathered documents, which revealed appointments were made without taking government approval. Immediately, they alerted Karnataka Government Employees As­s­o­­­ciation for fixing accountability. 

Karnataka State Government Employees Association President L Byrappa lodged a complaint with the chief minister on May 23, seeking a detailed probe for punishing the guilty officials in illegal recruitment. Byrappa also alleged that top officials working in Karnataka Bhavan not only recruited the subordinate staff illegally, but also caused financial loss to the government by promoting them.

Action against the guilty

The chief minister then directed the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms to probe the matter and take action against the guilty.

Based on the chief minister’s direction, the DPAR had sought a report from the Resident Commissioner Office on the appointments. The chief minister also ordered that any recruitment either in Karnataka Bhavan or the Resident Commissioner Office should be done with prior approval of the departments concerned and should be done in a transparent manner as per recruitment rules.