Men must bribe, women have to sleep with someone to get govt job in BJP-ruled Karnataka, alleges KPCC

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee spokesperson Priyank Kharge on Friday alleged that to get a government job in the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled state, men have to bribe while young women have to sleep with someone.

He made the accusation at a press meet, and said that government jobs in Karnataka were being sold. “If young women want government jobs, they should sleep with someone. Men have to bribe someone to become a government employee. It has become the government of illegal activities. A minister resigned after a sex-for-job scandal came to light,” he said.

At present, recruitment was underway to fill 1,492 vacancies in the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KPTCL), including that of assistant and junior engineer (electric), and civil engineer. “A candidate who wrote the examination by using a smart watch was arrested in Gokak. If a candidate sends a question paper by using smart devices, it amounts to leak,” he stated.

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According to Kharge, his sources told him about a deal that was made for 600 posts; he said his party suspected it likely to be a Rs 300-crore scandal. The ex-minister demanded that a judicial investigation be ordered into it or that a special investigation team be constituted.

He also said the government must set up a fast-track court to track the scandals reported in recruitment of police sub-inspectors, second divisional assistant and other posts.

“Where should the poor and the brilliant candidates go if there are scams taking place in all recruitment examinations? Middlemen know nothing would happen to them even if any scam comes to light. The government is playing with the lives of three lakh candidates who applied for various posts in the KPTCL,” he said.

Kharge alleged that candidates were upset with the 40 per cent commission government, which turned Vidhana Soudha into business soudha.

Congress to distribute flags

The former minister accused the BJP of using patriotism for business. He said that flag rules were changed without it being brought to the nation's notice, and a provision was also made to use polyester flags to make way for Reliance group to get maximum profit. “Government officials have been made as salesmen of national flags,” he said.

He said that flags were being distributed by forcibly deducting parts of salaries of railway staff. “Though no one was asked, the state government gave concession in tax for the movie ‘Kashmir Files’,” he said, and asked why the flags were not being distributed free of cost.

According to him, a government official called and appealed to him to buy 20,000 flags but he refused. He told the meet that instead of polyester flags, his party would distribute 10,000 khadi national flags in Kalaburagi.

Other notable state Congress leaders present at the press meet were Shivananda Martur, Subhash Rathod, and district congress committee president Jagadev Guttedar.