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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah’s son quits firm after nepotism charges
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Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah’s son quits firm after nepotism charges

Karnataka govt's agreement with Matrix Imaging Solutions Lab, co-owned by Yathindra Siddaramaiah, had raked up a controversy on conflict of interest

File photo. Everything is transparent, there is no wrong-doing, Siddaramaiah said to journalists before beginning his tour to drought affected districts on Friday. Photo: Hemant Mishra/MintPremium
File photo. Everything is transparent, there is no wrong-doing, Siddaramaiah said to journalists before beginning his tour to drought affected districts on Friday. Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint

Bengaluru: Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah’s son Yathindra Siddaramaiah resigned from a firm on Saturday after facing a fiery attack over charges of nepotism.

The state government’s agreement with Matrix Imaging Solutions Lab, a company co-owned by Yathindra Siddaramaiah, a doctor, to establish a super-speciality lab and diagnostic center at the government-run Victoria hospital in Bengaluru, had raked up a controversy on conflict of interest.

The agreement was given following a tendering process that started in October 2015. Siddaramaiah claimed only three bidders participated in the tendering and his son’s firm quoted the lowest rate. Everything is transparent, there is no wrongdoing, he said to journalists before beginning his tour to drought affected districts on Friday.

However, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleged that the tender allocation violates Union home ministry’s code of conduct for legislators, which disallows ministers from awarding government contracts to their family members. Yathindra had refuted any illegality in winning the tender. “I do not participate in the tender process. As a pathologist, I manage the path lab. I never asked my father to put any pressure on hospital authorities," he said to NDTV.

However, on Friday, senior leaders of the Congress party had come out expressing unhappiness over the issue snowballing into a controversy.

Digvijay Singh, Congress general secretary and in-charge of party affairs in Karnataka had said on Friday, as per the Press Trust of India, that he would advise Yathindra to quit “as a (matter of) propriety".

Even as the Congress could sense a relief with the resignation, its troubles may not be over yet. RTI activist S. Bhaskar filed a complaint on Saturday with Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), the newly formed vigilance wing under the government, to probe nepotism charges against the chief minister in this case.

Whether the agency will take up the complaint or not, will be announced early next week, said an officer associated with the ACB.

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Published: 16 Apr 2016, 09:44 PM IST
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