BANGALORE, DECEMBER 15: Chief Minister S M Krishna has directed the State Chief Secretary to forward a letter to the President of India, recommending that IAS officer Renuka Vishwanathan's resignation be accepted.Renuka Vishwanathan, a senior IAS officer who now holds the post of Managing Director of the Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL), recently dashed off her resignation to Chief Secretary B K Bhattacharya in protest after her IPS husband, R Vishwanathan, was denied the post of Bangalore city police commissioner.The letter was termed by highly-placed sources in Government as "childish, emotional and amounting to black-mail".In her resignation letter, Renuka is said to have taken exception to the appointment of T Madiyal as city Police Commissioner. She contended that her spouse R Vishwanathan - now Additional Director General of Police (Transport, Telecommunications and Modernisation) - was Madiyal's senior and therefore deserved to be the CP.Government sources held that the post of city CP was a "selection" post, and that the Chief Minister had discretionary powers to choose an officer for such a position.The resignation - unprecedented in the history of the Civil Services in the State - was apparently sent to Bhattacharya more than two weeks ago. Government sources revealed that the Chief Secretary held back the letter hoping that Renuka would meet him in person. When the IAS officer - who made a name for herself during her tenure as Managing Director of the Karnataka State Finance Corporation - did not withdraw the letter, Bhattacharya sent the letter to the CM.Krishna, who was reportedly `amused' by the letter, decided to keep the letter in abeyance, hoping that Renuka would come around. When that did not happen, he directed Bhattacharya to forward the letter to the President, conveying that the resignation could be accepted.Highly-placed sources in the Government told The Indian Express that the President's office was likely to ask Renuka to send in her papers in the prescribed format since the letter was addressed to the State Chief Secretary and not to the President of India, who is the appointing authority in case of Central Services.Any IAS officer who tenders his/her resignation can withdraw the resignation within a period of 90 days from the date of resignation.Meanwhile, sources in the State bureaucracy revealed that some IAS officers were making efforts to persuade Renuka to withdraw her resignation.
