A government school teacher in Karnataka was suspended on May 21 following allegations of criticising the newly formed Siddaramaiah government and the policies of Congress in the state.
Shanthamurthy MG, a teacher at Kanubennahalli government school in Chitradurga district's Hosadurga, expressed his discontent with the state government's policies and its distribution of freebies in a Facebook post. In the post, he wrote about the increasing debt of the state incurred during tenures of different chief ministers.
Shanthamurthy's Facebook post read, "What else can you do without giving freebies?" He further elaborated on the accumulated debt under various chief ministers, stating, "Debt during the tenure of former CMs - S M Krishna was Rs 3,590 crore, Dharam Singh Rs 15,635 crore, HD Kumaraswamy Rs 3,545 crore, BS Yeddiyurappa Rs 25,653 crore, DV Sadananda Gowda Rs 9,464 crore, Jagadish Shettar Rs 13,464 crore, and Siddaramaiah Rs 2,42,000 crores."
Shanthamurthy, in the post, also alleged substantial increase in loans from 1999 to 2013, covering the period from Krishna to Shettar, which amounted to Rs 71,331 crore. However, he claimed that the debt skyrocketed to Rs 2,42,000 crore during Siddaramaiah's tenure between 2013 and 2018. The teacher's post implied that this surge in debt made it convenient for the government to announce freebies.
Soon after he posted the status, his suspension order was issued by Field Education Officer L Jayappa, who stated that Shanthamurthy had violated government service rules by criticising the government.
“Shantamurthy, a suspended teacher, had violated the government service rules by mentioning the debts incurred during the previous governments while Siddaramaiah was taking oath as the new chief minister on Saturday,” read the suspension order.
Read: Siddaramaiah attends grandson's Class 12 farewell ceremony
Chitradurga Deputy Director of Public Instruction K Ravishankar Reddy further confirmed the suspension, citing the violation of the Karnataka Civil Services (Conduct) Rules, 1966. Section 10 of this act specifically forbids employees from openly criticising the government.
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