Karnataka - Mysore

CBI probe sought into KPSC affairs

MYSORE: Alleging large-scale irregularities in the selection of candidates for Karnataka Administrative Service (KAS) during 1998, 1999 and 2004, the Karnataka State Backward Classes Federation has urged Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa to order a CBI probe into the matter.

The federation’s demand for a CBI probe comes in the wake of the High Court’s decision to issue notices to former Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) chairman H.N. Krishna and 11 others, including the then members and secretaries of the commission.

Addressing presspersons here on Wednesday, federation president Shivaram said the appointment of KAS officers in 1998, 99 and 2004 was marred by “corruption and nepotism”. Social justice and reservation had been given a go-by, while KAS posts were sold to the rich and influential persons, Mr. Shivaram alleged.

Hence, the State Government, which was keen on probing the affairs of the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF), should also show a similar interest in the affairs of KPSC, which had become a “den of corruption” in the past few years, he said.

He alleged that there were several of cases of “illegal” appointments in which influential public representatives and bureaucrats managed to corner KAS posts by “circumventing” the reservation policy. Mr. Shivaram recalled that Mr. Yeddyurappa raised the matter in the Assembly when he was in the Opposition during the Nineties and spoke against the “illegal” KPSC appointments of 1993. Mr. Yeddyurappa, who had sought a CBI probe then, should show the same commitment now being the Chief Minister.

Though an earlier inquiry into the irregularities in the KAS examination of 1998 found 11 candidates guilty, Mr. Shivaram said, a probe by CBI would bring out the irregularities committed by the KPSC in recruitment during 1998, 1999 and 2004.

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