Karnataka - Mysore   

Meeting sought to resolve KSOU issue

Staff Correspondent

`Kumaraswamy's recent instruction to striking employees complicated the matter'

V. Srinivas Prasad

MYSORE: Former Union Minister V. Srinivas Prasad has urged Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy to convene a high-level meeting immediately to decide the fate of 228 temporary employees of Karnataka State Open University (KSOU), who have been seeking regularisation of their services. Addressing presspersons here on Thursday, Mr. Prasad sought to advise Mr. Kumaraswamy that there was no point in criticising Vice-Chancellor Sudha Rao for her refusal to cooperate in the matter. "If the Chief Minister thinks he is superior to the Vice-Chancellor, he should take the initiative to resolve the tangle instead of criticising her," he said.

Mr. Prasad said the Chief Minister should convene a high-level meeting comprising Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, who holds the Finance portfolio, Higher Education Minister D.H. Shankarmurthy, and officials from Law, Finance and Higher Education departments to take a decision on the regularisation of services of those temporary employees.

Though he sought to clarify that he was not defending Prof. Rao, Mr. Prasad said the Chief Minister's initiative had become necessary to put an end to the controversy.

"If the Vice-Chancellor is having a negative attitude, the Government should counter it with a positive attitude and solve the issue," Mr. Prasad said.

He said Mr. Kumaraswamy's oral instruction to temporary employees, who had been on strike for the past 19 months to resume duty, had complicated the matter. Instead of issuing oral instruction, the Chief Minister should have convened a meeting to take a decision on the matter, Mr. Prasad said.

He said the issue was not new to either Mr. Kumaraswamy or Mr. Yediyurappa. For, the KSOU Temporary Employees' Association had submitted a memorandum to Mr. Kumaraswamy when he was the working president of the Janata Dal (S). Mr Yediyurappa, who had also received a memorandum from the temporary employees when he was the Leader of the Opposition, had written to the then Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh seeking justice for them.

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