Cabinet authorises CM to select new chief secretary

The State Cabinet on Wednesday is learnt to have authorised Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to select a senior IAS officer as the new chief secretary of Karnataka.

Incumbent Kaushik Mukherjee is set to retire on December 31.

Additional Chief Secretary to the Home department S K Pattanayak and Additional Chief Secretary to the Industries and Commerce department K Ratna Prabha are said to be the frontrunners for the top post.

Going by seniority, 1978-batch IAS officer and Additional Chief Secretary Aravind Jadhav is the senior most, followed by Anup K Pujari and Upendra Tripathy. While Jadhav heads the Karnataka Appellate Tribunal, both Pujari and Tripathy are on Central deputation.

This apart, the government appointed Neela Manjunath, IAS, as the managing director of the Karnataka Silk Industries Corporation, Bengaluru.


Transgender persons demand exclusive commission

NEW DELHI: The Karnataka Transgender Samiti on Wednesday demanded the Centre to set up exclusive National and State commissions for transgender persons.

These commissions will help address various issues pertaining to the transgender community, Akkai Padmashali, founder member of the Samiti told reporters here.

The Samiti members also submitted their memorandum to Union Law and Justice Minister D V Sadananda Gowda and Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot, urging them to fulfill their demands.

They demanded that the proposed Rights of Transgender Persons Bill must ensure that police do not harass transgender persons. The bill should also have provisions pertaining to marriage, inheritance and adoption, the memorandum said.