Kumaraswamy seeks Modi’s intervention into Dayanand Pai’s role in BMS Educational Trust

Kumaraswamy seeks Modi’s intervention into Dayanand Pai’s role in BMS Educational Trust

mangaloretoday.com

Bengaluru, Mar 02, 2023: Janata Dal (Secular) leader HD Kumaraswamy has sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention and a judicial enquiry into the resolution of approving a ‘draconian’ amendment to the trust deed and alleged corruption in the appointment of billionaire Dayananda Pai as the life trustee of BMS Educational Trust.

 

In a letter addressed to PM Modi on February 8, which was now made public, the former chief minister alleged that Karnataka Higher Education Minister C N Ashwath Narayan and the state government have “given permission to sell the public property and public interest for illegal enrichment of persons having vested interests”.

Taking to Twitter, the JDS also posted photos of Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Narayan and BJP national general secretary BL Santosh meeting Pai over a meal and sought Modi’s intervention to eradicate corruption at all levels.

The BMS Educational Trust runs BMS College of Engineering, BMS Evening College of Engineering, BMS Institute of Technology, BMS College for Women and BMS Law College.

Kumaraswamy during his tenure as chief minister in 2018 had rejected a file seeking approval of four amendments to the original trust deed, which he said went against the intent of the original deed. In the letter addressed to PM Modi, Kumaraswamy stated that with the generous grants and the state government’s extensive logistical support, the educational trust has now accumulated movable and immovable properties worth more than Rs 10,000 crore.

However, he alleged, “Ragini Narayan who claims to be the wife of founder trustee B S Narayan has with an ill motive intended to amend the trust deed to scuttle the possible successorship of the state government to the status of donor trustee.”

Kumaraswamy said that although the amendments proposed by Ragini Narayan to the original trust deed were rejected, Narayan proposed the amendment once again when the BJP government came to power, trying to ‘privatise’ the trust through the following amendment: “The donor trustee has the right to appoint a life trustee to appoint his/her successor.”

In 2019, the amendment came to be deliberated and resolved in a meeting which proposed realtor and philanthropist Pai as the life trustee of the BMS Educational Trust. This decision was arrived at despite Opposition from the then commissioner of collegiate education Dr N Manjula, Kumaraswamy claimed. He also alleged that the state government ‘unjustifiably’ approved the amendment in March 2021.

Further, after the appointment, Pai has gone ahead and nominated his son Ravindra Pai as a successor to the position of life trustee and has entered into an agreement with Narayan to share the management seats on a 50:50 basis, Kumaraswamy alleged. “If the government had not approved the proposed amendment, the entire BMS institutions would have become state government’s property immediately after Ragini Narayan,” Kumaraswamy said in his letter. In fact, Kumaraswamy had also raised this issue on the floor of the House during the Assembly session in September 2022.

Courtesy: Indian Express