DH News Service
BANGALORE, Mar 28

State Finance Commission Chairman T N Narasimhamurthy today appealed to Chief Minister S M Krishna to fill up the backlog vacancies in government departments at the earliest and to find a permanent solution to the recurring problem.

Speaking to reporters here, Mr Narasimhamurthy said the backlog vanacies in government departments had put the educated unemployed into hardship as well as crippled the functioning of government machinery. Referring to the fast-unto-death agitation undertaken by the SC/ST Unemployed Engineers' Union in Gulbarga to protest against the Government's delay in filling up 25.000 backlog vacancies, Mr Narasimhamurthy urged the Chief Minister to depute one of its ministers to persuade the agitators to withdraw the strike.

Mr Narasimhamurthy also demanded the resignation of Vajapayee government in the wake of the Tehelka expose on graft in defence deals which rocked the country recently. He said Mr Vajpayee should own moral responsibility and relinquish his office instead of trying to protect himself and the top NDA leaders who were caught receiving bribe. Mr Murthy alleged that the NDA was trying to tarnish the image of Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi by making baseless allegations.