Karnataka govt to crack whip on IAS officers approaching media to air complaints

The Karnataka government will crack the whip on IAS officers who approach the media with complaints on political or administrative matters, Revenue minister R Ashoka said Thursday.

Speaking in the Legislative Assembly, Ashoka was responding to concerns by legislators that some IAS officials were directly approaching the media to air their grievances, instead of raising the issue with the Chief Secretary. Some officers are "overacting", Ashoka said, assuring the legislators that strict action will be initiated against such officials in the future.

Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri also expressed reservations about such a practice. "I have discussed this with the Chief Secretary earlier too. "Such a practice is against the regulations," he said.

JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy too raised an objection, questioning whether IAS officers have the power to directly approach the media.

"In a recent incident where two IAS officers were involved in a conflict with each other in Mysuru, I observed that the Chief Secretary himself went to Mysuru to broker peace. Shouldn't he be instead summoning the officials to come to his office in Bengaluru?" he questioned.

The debate began with legislator Sa Ra Mahesh levelling corruption charges against former Mysuru DC, without taking the official's name. Alleging that the official procured cotton bags under Swachch Bharath scheme for inflated prices, he questioned why the government was not conducting raids against corrupt IAS officers.

"A bag that costs barely Rs 4 in the market has been procured for Rs 69 on the pretext of distributing it to the public," he alleged. He further alleged that the government was going soft on "young women officials".

Several IAS officers serving in Karnataka have accumulated illegal wealth in other states, he charged.

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