'Harassed' KAS officer complains to Lokayukta against top officials

 In a first, a KAS officer has filed a complaint with the Lokayukta against four IAS officers alleging harassment.

K Mathai, an under secretary, presently serving as administrative officer, Sakala Mission, has filed a complaint against IAS officers and requested the Lokayukta to recommend the state government to introduce a strong Accountability Act.  

In his complaint, Mathai stated that three ‘false and baseless’ departmental enquiries (DE) were initiated against him since 2012 during the period of the then Principal Secretary Ashok Kumar Manoli (now retired). Based on the documents submitted by Mathai, the then Revenue Minister V Srinivas Prasad ordered closure of the DEs.

“After Srinivas Prasad joined BJP, the last proposal for DE was re-opened only to further harass me. There seems to be no end to intentional harassment of junior officers by senior officers,” Mathai stated in the complaint. The proposal to initiate the third DE is pending for the last five years without any action being taken either to set up enquiry or to close the proposal.” Mathai said the pending proposal was with the intention to deny him promotion.

As assistant commissioner (Advertisement) in BBMP, Mathai held a detailed enquiry into losses of advertisement tax suffered by the civic agency. His report said that BBMP lost Rs 2,000 crore in advertisement tax since 2008. The state government ordered a Criminal Investigation Department (CID) inquiry into the illegal advertisement hoardings case. Mathai claims to have fixed responsibility on the then BBMP Commissioner M Lakshminarayana. “The same senior officer recently wrote adverse remarks in my Annual Confidential Report so that my promotion is delayed,'” he said.

Mathai demanded that the proposal and DEs should also come under Sakala. “Article 51E of the Constitution requires every citizen to suggest reforms. A departmental enquiry pertaining to employee services is also required to be completed within three months as per rules. But, since it is not included in Sakala, senior officers prolong the DE cases and there is no mechanism to check senior officers' accountability. The state should have a Public Servants Accountability Act and an Accountability Commission,” Mathai said.