Bengaluru: Rajender Kumar Kataria, Secretary, Commerce and Industries Department, has in a letter to the Chief Secretary and others in the government, accused Mayakonda MLA K. Shivamurthy Naik of verbally abusing him and physically preventing him from working on a case related to the MLA’s son that is pending with the Department of Mines and Geology.
In his letter, Rajender Kumar Kataria, Secretary, Commerce and Industries Dept. (MSME and Mines), said Naik barged into his office on Monday and demanded he immediately approve the pending file submitted by his son Suraj Naik.
Suraj Naik made the application in 2015 for setting up a quarry on six acres in Siddeshwaranadurga village in Challakere taluk. As the application was submitted before the amendment to Karnataka Minor Minerals Concession Rules in 2016, it was invalidated. He has been trying to get his security deposit back since.
“He not only abused me in public, but also stated that I had looted money in this department and [that] I was not willing to do the work of his son overruling the legal position. He has also physically prevented me from carrying out my official duties,’’ Kataria said in the letter.