Karnataka IAS officer Manivannan's transfer raises eyebrows

In a surprise development, the Karnataka state government late on Monday evening transferred IAS officer P Manivannan out of the Labour department reportedly due to differences over distribution of food kits to construction workers among other things.

Manivannan was the principal secretary of the labour department. The officer has also been removed as the principal secretary of the information and public relations department. He has not been given a new posting.

He will be replaced by MSME & Mines principal secretary M Maheshwar Rao, who will now hold concurrent charge of the labour and information & public relations departments.

Speculation is rife on why Manivannan was transferred.

According to sources, Manivannan apparently had differences with Labour Minister Shivaram Hebbar over the supply of food kits to construction workers affected by the COVID-19 lockdown. “There was pressure from legislators that they be given the food kits for distribution and the minister was on the same page. But Manivannan resisted this,” a senior IAS officer in the know said.

Also, legislators are said to have complained of “mismanagement” and “poor handling” of the distribution of food kits to the workers.

“Plus, the fact that he was so active on social media might have worked against him,” a source said, pointing out that some in the government and the ruling party took exception to the way the officer used social media, which they thought was “too much.”

Notably, Manivannan's transfer comes days after the Karnataka Employers' Association (KEA) lodged a complaint with Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, accusing the officer of "high handedness."

In its petition to the CM, KEA president BC Prabhakar asked the government to "change the leadership" in the Labour department.

"The Labour secretary has been actively encouraging workers to register their complaints regarding non-payment of wages or retrenchment with an assurance that strict action will be taken against employers. Encouraged by this open call, more than 700 workmen have reportedly registered their complaints in the ‘Dasoha’ website," the KEA said.

"When no work has taken place during the lockdown period, the hands of the employers have been tied due to the lockdown and therefore, they have been unable to run their businesses and produce wealth," it said, adding that the Labour department was "provoking and instigating workmen" and "vitiating the entire atmosphere of harmonious relationship that has always existed in Karnataka."