Govt school teacher suspended in Karnataka for criticising Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Facebook

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A government school teacher was suspended on Sunday for allegedly criticising Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in a Facebook post, media reports said. The incident took place in Chitradurga district.

Shanthamurthy MG of Hosadurga taluk had written on Facebook that the state's debt rises whenever Siddaramaiah becomes the chief minister and that is why he can promise "freebies".

"Debt during the tenure of former CMs [chief ministers] SM Krishna was Rs 3,590 crore, Dharam Singh Rs 15,635 crore, HD Kumaraswamy Rs 3,545 crore, BS Yeddiyurappa Rs 25,653 crore, DV Sadananda Gowda Rs 9,464 crore, Jagadish Shettar Rs 13,464 crore and Siddaramaiah Rs 2,42,000 crores," he wrote on Facebook.

He added that loans incurred from 1999 when Krishna was the chief minister beginning till 2013, when Shettar took over was Rs 71,331 crore, but it rose to Rs 2,42,000 crore during Siddaramaiah's tenure between 2013 and 2018. "Hence it is easy for him to announce freebies," the post said.

Chitradurga Deputy Director of Public Instruction K Ravishankar Reddy said that he ordered the teacher's suspension "as he has violated Karnataka Civil Services (Conduct) Rules, 1966," according to media reports. Section 10 of the Act forbids employees from criticising the government. Reddy added that a departmental inquiry will be conducted too.

Siddaramaiah took oath as the chief minister of Karnataka on May 20. A day later, at the first meeting of his Cabinet, the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government approved the "five guarantees" it had promised to voters in its election manifesto.

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Congress had promised to provide 200 units of free electricity to all households, Rs 2,000 as monthly allowance to the woman head of every family, 10 kilograms of free rice to all members of families living below the poverty line, free bus travel for women and Rs 3,000 to those unemployed for up to two years after graduation and Rs 1,500 for unemployed diploma holders.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had criticised the poll promises, saying that they would "submerge the state in debt".