Pics: Umesh Marpalli
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (HB)
Udupi, Jun 19: Subraya Kamath, retired KAS officer who served as CEO of Karwar zilla panchayat and who is a resident of Kota, has finally succeeded in receiving his pension from the state government after 22 long months of battle with help from the Human Rights Protection Foundation (HRPF). He announced this at a press meet held on Friday June 19 at Vaikunta Baliga College, Udupi.
Kamath, who entered government service in 1984 as KAS officer and served the government for 29 years, had written 56 letters to various ministers and officials including the chief minister, law minister, and chief secretary, after he was deprived of his retirement benefits. He spent Rs 1,010, and along with the HRPF, has submitted 78 applications under the RTI Act out of which eight were rejected.
Kamath spent Rs 22,600 to enforce his fundamental right of receiving pension upon retirement. In September 2013, three days before his retirement, he got a notice from the state that he was allegedly involved in corruption.
But the fault in this case squarely was on the part of Hunsur CMC president, Ramesh, and chief officer, Krishna, during whose term the lapse had occurred relating to a commercial complex in 1999. The impact of this notice was that Kamath was denied all retirement privileges for 22 months.
Kamath had retired as chief executive officer of Uttara Kannada zilla panchayat. Before that, he had worked as additional deputy commissioner of Hassan district.
He said, “Both Goutham, DPAR, and Sunil Kumar, Urban Development Department, blindly went ahead with initiation of action under Section 166 of IPC. But, in reality, the lost amount was recovered in the year 2014 and I was exonerated in June 2014. I would like to know why they took one more year to rectify the situation?”
HRPF president, Ravindranath Shanbagh, approached the judiciary to get justice for Kamath. According to Shanbagh, he has dealt with six similar cases. He demanded that the court take certain action against officials based on human rights violation. No case has been filed under IPC 166 yet against erring officials, he noted. He added that he will not give up on the case till Kamath gets justice.
Ravindranath said that the chief secretary has been asked to identify the officials whose actions had caused dismay and harassment to Kamath, apart from causing loss to the exchequer and waste of time. He added that if the official fails to respond to the request and take action, the foundation will knock at the doors of the high court for justice.