Pending files: CM Siddaramaiah breaks ice with Governor Vajubhai Vala?

Bengaluru: Like every major festival, Chief Minister Mr Siddaramaiah called upon Governor Mr Vajubai Vala to wish him on the eve of Deepavali. However this time, the concerned Chief Minister  is said to have taken the discussion beyond exchanging Deepavali pleasantries.

Sources said that the Chief Minister was especially worried over two subjects, though there are a lot of issues pertaining to the state government that are pending with the Governor. Most of the files sent to Governor have been either kept pending or rejected.

However, the Governor returning the government proposal to appoint Justice K L Manjunath as Upa Lokayukta in the place of Justice S B Majage, who resigned after controversy of corruption in the Lokayukta institution, has put the government in soup.

Though Mr Siddaramaiah is not personally interested in Justice Manjunath, his cabinet colleagues Mr D K Shivakumar and Mr T B Jayachandra are interested.

But the Governor rejecting the proposal three times has embarrassed the government. To make matters worse, the Chief Minister’s office is said to have received a requisition to appoint Justice Ajit j Gunjal as Upa Lokayukta and propose his name instead of Justice Manjunath. The requisition has allegedly mentioned that the request was from Raj Bhavan, which has put the government in a fix, the sources said.

Meanwhile, the appointment of Vice Chancellors to various Universities has also become a contentious issue between the government and the Governor. For Karnataka Janapada University, the government had proposed the name of a professor from Lambani community. However, the Governor cleared the name of Prof Channappa Gowda. Mr Gowda is said to be close to a Union Minister from Karnataka, sources pointed out.

Earlier, appointment of Vice-Chancellors for six other Universities in Karnataka also faced a lot of problems. The files were kept pending for a year, where the Governor had sought clarification over the nominations.

The ice was broken when the Governor agreed to release the list only after the government conceded to appoint Mr S B Hosmani as Rani Chennamma University Vice-Chancellor. Mr Hosmani is said to be the candidate of a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, sources pointed out.

On Monday, the Chief Minister lightly touched on the issues and wanted clarification on better cooperation from the government side for a cordial working atmosphere between the Raj Bhavan and the government, sources added.

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