BENGALURU: Upa Lokayukta Justice Subhash B Adi on Tuesday sought clarification from the Revenue Department secretary and the Bengaluru Urban Deputy Commissioner on the delay in issuance of caste certificates, which are required for admissions under the RTE Act.
He asked them to submit their responses by Thursday as the deadline for admissions under the Act is February 19. On Tuesday, he paid a surprise visit to the tahsildar’s office, Bengaluru South, following a complaint filed by social worker Adarsh R Iyer that officials were delaying issuance of caste certificates and rejecting applications for no reason.
Iyer alleged that the applications of 35 children belonging to Gulbarga Colony, a backward area mostly populated by migrants, coolies and daily wagers, were rejected by a case worker as they could not afford to pay bribes. Their applications were even certified by the revenue inspector, Iyer has said.
The accused, Narayanappa, is said to have rejected the applications on the ground that they didn’t come attached with the school certificate of one family member. “As the matter is urgent, I personally visited the office of the tahsildar to verify. The tahsildar informed me that the applicants belong to SC or ST and that he would verify all the applications and take takes steps to issue certificates to the deserving ones,” Justice Adi said.
The Upalokayukta said the staff at the tahsildar’s office appear to have a nexus with brokers who collect money from applicants. “One (staffer) told me that around `600 needs to be spent to get a certificate. The office gets about 1,000 applications from each hobli but genuine applicants should be deprived of their right,” he said.