1,000 village accountants appointed without bribe of single rupee: Minister Byre Gowda

The programme was conducted at Vidhana Soudha to ensure that the newly recruited VAs should know the purpose of Vidhana Soudha and work for the people.

Laptops were distributed to 4,000 village administration officers, in Bengaluru on Tuesday Photo | Nagaraja Gadekal

BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah symbolically gave recruitment letters to newly appointed 1,000 village accountants on Tuesday. As many as 6.3 lakh people had applied for the posts and Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda commented that probably no other job would have got so many applications. “We had called for and conducted exams through the Karnataka Examination Authority. The new VAs have been recruited without any middlemen,” he said.

He claimed that the exams were conducted with complete transparency and no recommendation was entertained. It was done in such a way that the answer scripts could not be changed after the exam was conducted. “Not a single rupee was paid as bribe,’’ he said.

The programme was conducted at Vidhana Soudha to ensure that the newly recruited VAs should know the purpose of Vidhana Soudha and work for the people, he said.

On the occasion, the CM also distributed laptops to village administration officers. Byregowda said that every day, VAs run to taluk offices either to give or collect letters. Much of their time was spent on this task, not allowing them to do productive work. The postal system at the department is 200 years old which has no meaning now. “We have given them laptops to reduce their work. This financial year, all VAs will get laptops,” he said.

Selected based on merit, reservation: Siddaramaiah

Addressing the newly recruited village accountants, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said elected representatives and government employees exist only for people. “We are elected by the people, while you are appointed by the government.

Both of us have to work for the people. Your appointments were done without any middlemen and corruption. You have been selected based on your merit and reservation,’’ he said. The state has 9,834 sanctioned VA posts, of which around 8,000 are working. With the recruitment of 1,000 VAs, there will be a vacancy of over 800 posts. We have approved the appointment of 500 more,” he said.