Bengaluru: The Karnataka Government has slammed the Centre for the use of Central forces while conducting Income Tax (IT) search and seizure operations on the premises linked to Energy Minister D.K. Shivakumar.
The State said the deployment of Central armed forces in operational attire for a civilian operation sends a wrong impression about the necessity of such a move.
In a letter to Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia, the State’s Additional Chief Secretary to Home Department Subhash Chandra said that the use of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel in the operations is against the “established conventions of co-operative action between agencies of the Central and State Governments”, which cannot be bypassed in matters where both share responsibilities.
Chandra said there were protests following the raids and “there was every possibility that the matter could have escalated” into a law and order situation, which is the responsibility of the State Government. This comes a day after CM Siddharamaiah expressed opposition to the use of CRPF personnel in the raids and called it “politically motivated” and against “the principles of democracy and co-operative federalism.”
“The deployment of CRPF in full operational attire with weapons for a civilian operation casts aspersions of adverse credibility, integrity and professionalism on the State Police which has been utilised by the I-T Department effectively earlier,” said the letter.
The I-T Department did not seek assistance from the local Police or any senior Police authority for these operations, Chandra said, that Central force being deployed for such an operation is a first for Karnataka. About 30 armed CRPF personnel were deployed in Bengaluru during the search.
“The Government of Karnataka wishes to convey its strong protest with regard to the above. It is requested that established conventions of co-operative action between agencies of the Central and State Governments should not be by-passed in such matters. It is also requested that I-T department is suitably advised,’’ the letter said.
This post was published on August 4, 2017 6:57 pm