Day after slain BJYM worker Praveen Nettaru’s wife loses job, Siddaramaiah promises reappointment

Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah said: “Considering this as a special case, Nutan Kumari will be re-appointed on humanitarian grounds.”

Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday said that slain Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) leader Praveen Nettaru’s wife Nutan Kumari will be reappointed to her job on “humanitarian” grounds, a day after she was terminated from her temporary employment as part of “natural process” in the wake of change in government.

Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah said that slain Praveen Nettaru’s wife Nutan will be reappointed to job on “humanitarian” grounds (ANI)

“After a new government comes in, it is a natural process to dismiss the temporary employees who were appointed by the previous government from the government service,” Siddaramaiah said in a tweet in Kannada. “Not only Praveen Nettaru’s wife, more than 150 contract workers have already been dismissed from service. There is no government interference in this.”

He added: “Considering this as a special case, Kumari will be re-appointed on humanitarian grounds.”

Read: NIA files supplementary chargesheet against 2 in Praveen Nettaru murder case

The development came after a protest by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, who described Kumari’s termination as “vendetta”. State government officials, however, clarified that Kumari’s job had been terminated in the natural course since she was hired on a contract basis for the tenure of BJP government led by former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai. “The employment order stated that her tenure would last until the chief minister’s term or until further notice,” explained a senior IAS officer, declining to be named.

Nettaru (31), a leader of BJYM (the youth wing of BJP), was murdered in Bellare town on July 26 last year, allegedly by members of banned Islamic organisation, Popular Front of India (PFI). The case has been handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Following the murder, then chief minister Bommai issued an order appointing Kumari on a contract basis on humanitarian grounds. The appointment came on the request of BJP state president and Dakshina Kannada lawmaker Nalin Kumar Kateel. On September 22 last year, the then BJP government issued an order appointing her as senior assistant (Group C) at the office of CM Bommai. On Kumari’s request, however, she was later posted at the Dakshina Kannada deputy commissioner’s office, where she reported to duty on October 14.

Kumari received the termination order on Friday.

Earlier, BJP leader Kateel said he would appeal to chief minister Siddaramaiah to reinstate Kumari’s job. “I will write a letter to the chief minister, and if the government denies the request, temporary employment would be arranged for her in any of the Union government establishments in Mangaluru, such as the New Mangalore Port Trust,” he told reporters.

The BJP Karnataka unit also attacked the newly elected Congress government in a social media post. “Praveen Nettaru was killed by members of the PFI, a terrorist organization nurtured by the Congress that spreads communal hatred. His wife was given a job by our government in the deputy commissioner’s office in Mangaluru on compassionate grounds. That the Congress government has begun using its politics of hatred is condemnable. We demand the government to immediately withdraw the inhuman dismissal order,” the state BJP posted on its official Twitter handle.