'Govt yet to act against ex-MD of KS&DL'

THe Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Ltd (KS&DL) employees’ union has urged the state government to take action against former managing director

A C Keshavamurthy and recover Rs 4.65 crore paid to a private supplier without receiving raw material.
The union states that despite directions from the Committee on Public Undertakings (COPU) to appoint a retired high court judge to hold an enquiry against Keshavamurthy and four other officials, the state government is sleeping over it.

The union stated that the state government was all set to close the company even as recently as 2014-15. “The employees worked hard and helped achieve a profit during the present fiscal year. Over the years, a lot of reforms were taken up and the company has made a remarkable comeback. Under such circumstances, it is disheartening to see that no action is being taken against the irresponsible and irregular way of clearing amounts without raw materials being supplied,” G R Shivashankar, president of the union said.

Five other officials
The COPU report, a copy of which is available with the DH, stated that besides Keshavamurthy, five other officials, C M Suvarnakumar (DGM Marketing), M V Sheshadri (DM production), Muthu Lakshmi (AGM MD's office) and Naga Krishnaraje (AGM R&D) were responsible for release of Rs 4.65 crore to Balaji Food Processing Industry. The committee noted that it was evident from the documents that Balaji Industry had written to then managing director Keshavamurthy to release advance payment towards supply of certain raw materials (PKFAD and Stick Agarbathi).

“The managing director has recommended payment of money without receiving raw materials. Ever since the issue was raised in 2015, neither the money was recovered nor the raw materials supplied. Repeated directions of COPU recommending action against the then MD is not being looked into by the government,” Shivashankar said. Keshavamurthy is an All India Service officer (Indian Forest Service) and will retire in July.

Reminder
COPU chairman Dr A B Malaka Reddy said one more reminder will be issued if the enquiry committee is not appointed.

“We (COPU) had also summoned the then MD during the meeting and he was ready to face the enquiry. I was not aware that he is retiring in four months. The direction was to set up the enquiry and submit the report in three months. Once the stipulated time is over, we will again send them (the department) a reminder,” he said.