In a tragic incident, an employee of the Karnataka government recently committed suicide due to unpaid wages. The victim, named Chikoosa Nayaka, who worked as a waterman at the Honganuru Gram Panchayat in Karnataka’s Chamarajanagar district, took his life in front of a panchayat office.
As per reports, the victim left a suicide note in which he said that his wages had been pending for the past 27 months and he was facing mental harassment by local officials. “I have been working as a waterman since 2016. I requested the Panchayat Development Officer (PDO) and the Gram Panchayat president to clear my 27-month pending salary, but they ignored me. I even approached the Zilla Panchayat CEO, but nothing happened,” Nayaka reportedly wrote in his suicide note.
Nyaka said that he made repeated requests for the payment of his pending salaries and even expressed the wish to resign owing to his ill-health, but the officials paid no heed. Nyaka accused PDO, Rame Gowda, and the husband of the Gram Panchayat president, Mohan Kumar, of continuous mental harassment. In his suicide note, he wrote that Gowda and Kumar used to deny his leave requests and ask him to find his replacement before seeking leave. “If I asked for leave, they would tell me to find a replacement before taking time off. They made me stay in the office from 8 am to 6 pm. I am ending my life due to the harassment of the PDO and Mohan Kumar,” he stated in the note, urging authorities to take legal action against them.
A case has been registered under the SC/ST Act against the PDO, the Gram Panchayat president, and her husband. The Zilla Panchayat CEO suspended Rame Gowda following the incident, on the grounds of negligence and violation of service rules.
The Karnataka BJP slammed the Siddaramaiah-led Karnataka Congress government for failing to pay wages to government workers on time. The party pointed out a similar incident of suicide in the state, where a librarian named Bhagyavati Vishweshwaraiah Aggimath, from Sedam taluk in Kalaburagi district committed suicide because of unpaid wages.
ಕಾಂಗ್ರೆಸ್ ಆಡಳಿತದಲ್ಲಿ ಸಂಬಳ ಸಿಗುವುದಿಲ್ಲ ಆದರೆ, ಸಾವು ಖಚಿತವಾಗಿ ಸಿಗುತ್ತದೆ.!
— BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) October 18, 2025
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ಗ್ರಂಥಪಾಲಕಿ ಆತ್ಮಹತ್ಯೆ
❌ಸ್ಯಾಲರಿ ಸಿಗದೆ
ನೀರಗಂಟಿ ಆತ್ಮಹತ್ಯೆ
❌ಬಾಕಿ ಹಣ ಸಿಗದೆ
ಗುತ್ತಿಗೆದಾರ ಆತ್ಮಹತ್ಯೆ
❌ಸಂಬಳಕ್ಕಾಗಿ ಸಾರಿಗೆ ಇಲಾಖೆ
ನೌಕರ ಆತ್ಮಹತ್ಯೆಗೆ ಯತ್ನ
ಕೊಲೆಗಡುಕ @INCKarnataka ಸರ್ಕಾರದ ದಿವಾಳಿತನಕ್ಕೆ… pic.twitter.com/q3FckawNN3
Karnataka BJP President Vijayendra Yediyurappa lashed out at the Congress government in the state for failing to pay the salaries of state government employees on time.
ಸಕಾಲಕ್ಕೆ ವೇತನ ನೀಡದ ರಾಜ್ಯ @INCKarnataka ಸರ್ಕಾರದ ಅಮಾನವೀಯ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆಗೆ ಬೇಸತ್ತು ನೇಣಿಗೆ ಶರಣಾಗಿದ್ದ ಕಲಬುರಗಿ ಜಿಲ್ಲೆಯ ಸೇಡಂ ತಾಲ್ಲೂಕಿನ ಗ್ರಂಥಪಾಲಕಿ ಭಾಗ್ಯವತಿ ವಿಶ್ವೇಶ್ವರಯ್ಯ ಅಗ್ಗಿಮಠ ಅವರ ಹೃದಯವಿದ್ರಾವಕ ಘಟನೆ ಹಸಿಯಾಗಿರುವಾಗಲೇ ವೇತನವನ್ನೇ ನಂಬಿ ಬದುಕು ಕಟ್ಟಿಕೊಂಡಿರುವ ಚಾಮರಾಜನಗರ ತಾಲೂಕಿನ ಹೊಂಗನೂರು ಗ್ರಾಮ… pic.twitter.com/ILNSLPQOKL
— Vijayendra Yediyurappa (@BYVijayendra) October 17, 2025
“Even after the recent suicide of a librarian, the government should have woken up and resolved the salary issue. However, this thick-skinned, deaf government remains indifferent to the pain and suffering of the poor and distressed. It is unclear how many more innocent lives this government needs to sacrifice before it addresses the issue and ensures timely salary payments to bring stability to its employees,” Yediyurappa wrote on X on Friday (17th October), urging the state government to put a system in place to ensure that the employees are paid on time.
