BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is likely to recommend the name of a retired or serving IAS officer to the plum post of chairman of Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) in the aftermath of Governor Vajubhai Vala rejecting the candidature of former chairman of Legislative Council, V.R. Sudarshan, for the top post.
Sources close to Mr. Siddaramaiah told Deccan Chronicle that such a move would help avoid further embarrassment for the state government at a time when it was in discomfiture because of Mr Vala’s decision to reject the names of Mr Sudarshan and three others.
Therefore, the Chief Minister would ponder over the issue after his three-day visit to New Delhi beginning Friday. He was busy earlier this week due to a visit to his home district for two days. He could commence formal consultations in this regard on Monday, sources added.
Sources said Mr Siddaramaiah was strongly in favour of appointing a retired or serving senior IAS officer for the post in view of the demand to appoint an apolitical person. He was also weighing the pros and cons of appointing a bureaucrat for that post following controversy over appointments made during the regime of two retired IAS officers, Mr Gonal Bheemappa and Mr H N Krishna. At the same time, the government did not want to get into any kind of confrontation with Raj Bhavan by recommending names of politicians for that post.
“Having already burnt its fingers, the government wants to recommend names of persons with clean image to ensure that the list is not rejected again. Mr Siddaramaiah is unlikely to take any decision. A fresh list may be sent to the Governor after Gram Panchayat polls. The Chief Minister will discuss with his close aides during next week before arriving at any conclusion. In all probability, the KPSC may have an apolitical person as its chairman,” sources added.
