BENGALURU: The State government has gone ahead and issued transfer orders to the Engineer Member (EM) of the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) ranked No. 2 in the department. This is in clear violation of the Supreme Court order barring transfer of any of the officers involved in work related to the formation of the Dr Shivaram Karanth Layout.
The move to remove EM H R Shantharajanna by the State government is a clear Contempt of Court, a source said.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had on August 30 written an official note to the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DPAR) to effect the transfer order. "The DPAR had issued the order on August 31. It replaces H R Shantharajanna with V Govindaraju, Chief Engineer of National Highways. Shantharajanna was posted as Chief Engineer for the Hemavati Project Zone at Gorur in Hassan district with immediate effect," said a top BDA source.
The SC appointed Committee for formation of Dr Shivaram Karanth Layout headed by Justice A V Chandrashekhar wrote to the Chief Secretary the same day asking for the transfer order to be revoked in light of the court order.
A BDA official said, "The Authority is yet to receive any communication nullifying the transfer order. The officer posted in his place is yet to assume charge though."
The SC order on August 19 in its hearing on a case between BDA vs State of Karnataka and others said, "We direct the State government/Commissioner, BDA, not to transfer the Deputy Commissioner, Land Acquisition Officers and Engineers who are presently engaged in the formation of Dr Shivaram Karanth Layout nor they should be assigned with any additional work in the BDA until further orders."
The next round of fortnightly hearing on the Layout by the SC is scheduled for Tuesday (September 7).