Suspension of government officials ordered

MADIKERI:  In a historic action initiated by the principal secretary of the revenue department, some officers of Mysore and Kodagu districts were asked to suspend village accountants, revenue inspectors, shirasthedars and tahsildars involved in the violation of sections 79A and 79B of the Karnataka Revenue Act, 1961.The violations comprise sale of land to non-agriculturists and non domiciles of the district and the state.In a letter, K Boralingaiah, under secretary of revenue department, has asked Kodagu Assistant Commissioner Dr M R Ravi to submit a detailed report to the state government as per the resolutions of a meeting held on August 2, which was chaired by the prinicipal secretary, Ashok Kumar C Manoli. It is said that out of 1,833 cases reported in the district, which were verified and examined by the regional commissioner’s team, 26 cases were found to be sheer violation of the Revenue Act. Manoli asked the DC to suspend the officials concerned without serving a showcause notice. The regional commissioner (RC) of Mysore has been asked to suspend the shirasthedars; the DC has been asked to submit a proposal to the government to suspend the tahsildars. It was also directed to file all the cases in the assistant commissioner’s court by the current tahsildars of the three taluks with complete details of the officials’ involvement in all such activities, and if necessary, appoint a tahsildar to verify and examine these cases.The letter also added that in a few cases, files were missing as per the RC’s report. The principal secretary is said to have asked to file a chargesheet against the officials responsible for the missing files. The principal secretary has asked that the missing files be created.The action was sought according to the letter written to the revenue minister dated March 23, 2011, in which Manoli alleged that the Kodagu district administration failed to prevent the purchase of land in Kodagu by non-residents of the state and district and non-agriculturists. Based on this, the under secretary of the revenue department visited the three taluks and submitted 46 case reports to the principal secretary, who in turn, asked the RC of Mysore to file all the cases to him and form an enquiry team. Dr Ravi will report in detail on the points mentioned in the meeting held on August 2, the letter said.