Karnataka govt orders inquiry into ‘fraud’ at Kannada Sahitya Parishat

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government has ordered an inquiry into allegations of financial irregularities at premier literary body Kannada Sahitya Parishat (KSP).

This comes months ahead of the 88th All India Kannada Sahitya Sammelana, the flagship literary event organised by KSP scheduled to take place at Ballari in December.

KSP president Mahesh Joshi, who was elected in 2021 for a five-year term, has been accused of overseeing financial irregularities.

In an order, the cooperation department has appointed Joint Registrar of Cooperative Societies P Shashidhar to look into the KSP’s financial affairs.

The inquiry will specifically look into the following aspects since 2022-23: bye-laws amended, allegations of illegal notices being issued to office-bearers by the president, allegations of misappropriating grants received from the government and other sources, irregularities in the purchase and sale of vehicles, installation of CCTVs and procurement of other fire extinguishers and printing, illegalities in the issuance of smart cards, auditing lapses, misuse of funds for events pertaining to the president’s family members and so on.

Earlier this week, a delegation of writers petitioned Housing Minister Zameer Ahmed Khan, who is in charge of the Ballari district, seeking a probe against Joshi. The delegation had Srikante Gowda, SH Siddaramaiah, Banjagere Jayaprakash, Vasundhara Bhupathi, Sunanda Jayaram and others.