Recovery notice served to priest & writer Hiremagalur Kannan to be withdrawn: Siddu

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday said he would direct the concerned officials to withdraw the recovery notice issued by a Tahsildar to priest and Kannada writer Hiremagalur Kannan.

The issuance of notice by asking the priest of Kodanda Ramaswamy temple at Hiremagalur in Chikkamagaluru district to return the excess amount of Rs 4.74 lakh credited to his account between 2013 and 2022 had kicked up a row, with several BJP leaders slamming the government and demanding that it be withdrawn with immediate effect.

”The Tahsildar is wrong in issuing a notice to Hiremagalur Kannan to refund the ‘tasdik’ (honorarium) money, not Kannan’s fault. I will speak to the concerned to withdraw the notice. Kannan has been paid extra money by Tahsildar. We will collect arrears from them,” Siddaramaiah said on ‘X’ After a controversy erupted over the issue, Transport and Endowment Minister Ramalinga Reddy on Tuesday stated that the notice served to the priest would be withdrawn.

He had instructed the officers to hold an inquiry against the Chikkamagaluru Tahsildar and the officials responsible for the wrong payment and recover the excess amount from them.

According to the notice issued to the priest on December 2, 2023, the state government released a total ‘tasdik’ of Rs 3.36 lakh to the temple. But Rs 8.1 lakh got credited to the priest’s account during this period following which the Tahsildar instructed the priest to refund the excess amount of Rs 4.74 lakh to the temple’s account”.