Law dept to take a call on action against accused in KPSC fraud

The State Cabinet on Thursday decided to refer to the Law department the issue of prosecuting a section of former Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) members and its staff for their role in irregularities in filling 362 gazetted posts in 2011.

Briefing reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Law Minister T B Jayachandra said a final decision will be taken based on the opinion of the Law department. The government, last year, rejected the final list of 2011 batch after a CID probe found rampant corruption in the recruitment process.

The CID, in its report submitted to the government had stated that it found incriminating evidence against the then KPSC chairman Gonal Bheemappa, then secretary K R Sunder, KPSC members Mangala Sridhar, Special Officer Arunachalam, and three employees of KPSC.

The Cabinet also decided to refer to the Law department the revision of Karnataka Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement, Rules, 2014 to bring it in conformity with the recent ordinance on the Land Acquisition Act promulgated by the NDA government.

Other decisions of the Cabinet include providing a second set of uniforms for schoolchildren studying between classes one and eight under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan scheme. 

The Cabinet also approved “Gruha Bhagya scheme” for providing houses to pourakarmikas. Under the scheme, as many as 1,000 pourakarmikas employed on a permanent basis across the State would be provided subsidy and loans for constructing houses. Each housing unit will be built at a cost of Rs seven lakh.

The Cabinet decided to frame rules for requirement of staff from the State at Karnataka Bhavan in New Delhi, Jayachandra said.