Press release from Business Wire India
Source: Mr. Vivek Kulkarni, IAS (Retd)
Friday, April 09, 2010 05:22 PM IST (11:52 AM GMT)
Editors: General: Law & justice, People, Politics; Business: Information technology; Technology
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Vivek Kulkarni Denies PSU Committee's Allegations. The Committee has Violated Principles of Natural Justice
Bangalore, Karnataka, India, Friday, April 09, 2010 -- (Business Wire India) -- Vivek Kulkarni, former IT Secretary denies all the allegations by the Karnataka Legislature PSU committee as baseless and untrue. His rejoinder follows:
Shri M K Pattanshetty, Chairman of Public Undertakings Committee has recommended action against me in a recent report. I was clueless and shocked to see this news item. I never received any notice of personal hearing nor called to give any written response. It is unfair that the Honorable Legislature Committee made recommendations without following principles of natural justice.
Since then, I looked at the report of the Committee which is five pages in all. The report wrongly shows that I was the Managing Director of MCA. My responses to the allegations are as follows:
Allegation 1: I asked STPI, a Government of India nonprofit society, to take responsibility to organize
www.bangaloreit.com
event, when the state government used to release budget for the same.
It is very clear that the Chairman of PSU committee has not appreciated how the IT industry developed in Bangalore. The IT department had very less staff - just one under Secretary and one Officer on Special Duty. Even though most government departments are overstaffed, I worked with minimal staff to demonstrate that the governments can work more effectively with less bureaucratic layers. Even the Bio tech department that was first conceived and started by me in Bangalore had just two employees. However STPI had around one hundred youngsters well versed in IT. We wanted these youngsters to act as catalysts to promote the state event.
This decision resulted in active collaboration between Government of India and Government of Karnataka. The active unity between the two government functionaries was one of critical factors contributing to extraordinary IT growth in Bangalore. Instead of complimenting me for fostering excellent relationship between the State and Central Government, I have been criticized.
Allegation 2: The same event manager was continued when payments were due to MCA, a State PSU.
As IT Secretary, I never appointed the event manager arbitrarily. I had constituted a committee headed by the Director of STPI, Director of IT of Government of Karnataka and others as members, to decide the event manager on merits. The events were held very successfully with tremendous international participation.
MCA was never under my administrative control. It is a PSU with senior officers and has to take care of its own internal processes, accounting, sales etc. The fact that they did not receive some money from the event managers was not brought to my notice. I do not recall any discussion in any committees about this.
As IT secretary, in my entire term, I had stipulated that IT advertising business shall be given only to the state PSU MCA. I have always encouraged our own PSUs to make them more viable.
I am sad that the committee chose to overlook my achievements. During my tenure as the IT Secretary, Karnataka saw one new foreign company every week. Lakhs of high paying jobs were created. Commercial space of over 10 million sq feet was created every year. The city saw more than Rs 27,000 crores investment a year. The IT and Bio tech jobs created the residential real estate sector. It is unfortunate that the committee has not taken note of any of my achievements. Instead, it has focused on a small non issue that was not my responsibility at all.
During the four years when I was the IT Secretary the events achieved international recognition and Bangalore brand value reached its peak. Since then the state government failed to retain the valuable brand www.bangaloreit.com and allowed the website be taken over by a private party. This act of state government has resulted in loss of brand value of thousands of crores.
I once again deny all the allegations against me. They are false. It is unfair that the Honorable Legislature Committee made recommendations without following principles of natural justice.
CONTACT DETAILS
Anitha Girish, Brickwork Ratings, +91 80 40409900 / +91 9900268535, anitha.g@brickworkindia.com
KEYWORDS
LAW, PEOPLE, POLITICS, TECHNOLOGY
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