The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Minister upset over being cold-shouldered

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 17, 2007
ePaper

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Minister upset over being cold-shouldered

Special Correspondent

An EDUSAT network was launched without the Minister’s presence
Principal Secretary of department was shifted without consulting him

D.H. Shankaramurthy

BANGALORE: Higher Education Minister D.H. Shankaramurthy is a bit upset.

First, his department went ahead with a programme as prestigious as the launch of an EDUSAT network to connect 102 government first grade colleges without his presence. And he was not even consulted before the Government transferred his department’s principal secretary, Kaushik Mukherjee.

“I have been kept in the dark,” the Minister told presspersons here on Thursday.

Mr. Shankaramurthy was categorical in his appraisal of the EDUSAT programme.

“I am not happy, and the whole department is responsible for the lapse,” he charged, hardly making an attempt to hide his disappointment on the way the whole affair was handled.

The programme had been postponed from September 9 to 13 since he had to attend a programme in Shimoga.

Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, Minister for Public Works H.D. Revanna and ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair attended the programme and highlighted the Government’s achievements in higher education.

The department invited Mr. Shankaramurthy for the programme at the Banquet Hall of the Vidhana Soudha. “I will speak to the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa” and decide the next course of action on the issue, he said.

Action

Asked whether Department of Collegiate Education Commissioner M.V. Jayanthi was responsible for the lapse, he said, “suitable action will be initiated against any official responsible for conducting the programme in his absence.”

Mr. Mukherjee was transferred without consulting him, the Minister said. A large number of vacancies of lecturer had affected teaching in government first grade colleges.

Though the Karnataka Public Service Commission interviewed candidates for 611 vacancies two months ago, appointment orders had not been issued because of the delay in the submission of police reports on candidates by the Home Department, Mr. Shankaramurthy said.

There were nearly 2,500 vacancies in colleges. The Finance Department recently cleared a proposal to fill 1,563 vacancies.

The department had decided to appoint guest lecturers in the colleges.

They would be paid a monthly honorarium of Rs. 5,000, he said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka