Sindhuri vs Nag: How ugly IAS spat, politics, rivalry, allegations led to transfers [details]

After two IAS officers were involved in an ugly spat with each other in Mysuru, Karnataka transferred Mysuru deputy commissioner, Rohini Sindhuri Dasari and Mysuru city corporation commissioner, Shilpa Nag along with four IAS officers last week.

The slugfest between Nag and Sindhuri was on since Thursday evening after emotionally choked Nag announced her resignation by flashing 18-page handwritten resignation in a press conference alleging Sindhuri had been humiliating her all along. Within hours in a tit for tat move, Sindhuri had released a press statement subtly highlighting Nag's dereliction of duties as well casting aspersions on her by asking to give account utilisation of Corporate Social Responsibility fund (CSR) of Rs 12.3 crore.

Following this spat, Chief Secretary, P. Ravi Kumar held meeting in Mysuru on Friday to take stock Covid preparedness of district, where it was learnt that both IAS officers had submitted over 100-page reports (their side of story) to him besides Nag tried to hand over her resignation to him but he denied to receive it instead asked her to focus on COVID related work from Sunday in Mysuru.

Sindhuri meets CM to revoke transfer

Following the order of transfer, Sindhuri met Karnataka CM BS Yediyurappa on Sunday to request him not to transfer her out as she had been working on various COVID-related projects in the district. However, the CM said it was not possible to revoke the order and asker the IAS officer to take charge of her new role.

"Yes, Rohini Sindhuri, after her transfer, had come to meet me. There is no question of re-examining the transfers. I have asked her to report to the department to which she has been transferred to," BSY told reporters.

Land mafia after Sindhuri?

There are also reports about Sindhuri making rivals out of politicians and real-estate businessmen due to her intolerance to corruption. She made a firm stand to protect 1,600 acres of wasteland, for which the Karnataka HC also heard a case. Sindhuri was adamant to evict enrichers from the government lands. There are allegations that this rivalry is the reason behind the campaign to malign former Mysuru DC's image in wake of the public spat.

Describing Mysuru as her 'Tavaru Mane (the maternal home of a bride), outgoing Mysuru Deputy Commissioner Dasari Rohini Sindhuri said on Monday that she was paying the price of being an upright and honest officer who tried to safeguard government lands from being taken away by the land mafia in a clandestine manner.

"Some people unnecessarily troubled me as I tried to clear encroachments of government lands. As a Deputy Commissioner, my primary duty was to save government lands, lakes and other public properties, which might fall prey to land sharks. I was doing this work from the day I took over as DC for which I got into the wrong books of a few. I was a victim of a conspiracy," she claimed.

Controversy over pool at DC's residence

The Karnataka government has ordered an inquiry into the construction of an indoor swimming pool and a gym inside the official residence of Rohini Sindhuri, the Deputy Commissioner of Mysuru. The order marked 'urgent' and addressed to the Regional Commissioner of Mysuru cites the complaints submitted by Mahesh and former MCC corporator K.V. Mallesh, among others, against the construction of an indoor swimming pool and gym at a cost of Rs 50 lakh in the official residence of Sindhuri, which happens to be a heritage building.

One of Sindhuri's harshest critics in the district, former minister and JD(S) leader Sa. Ra. Mahesh, has been raising the issue for the last two months. He had even released documents in this connection.

However, the allegations were shot down by Sindhuri, who said that all the construction works at her premises were well within the frameworks of law. The IAS officer further said the executeon of the pool at the official residence of DC was done by Nirmiti Kendra in January 2021 to prove cost-effective technology and as a demo work. To further clarify, Sindhuri mentioned the DC residence is about 5.15 acres and the pool has been constructed on a small piece of land which is not connected to the heritage building.

Allegations against Nag

As the war of words between the two IAS officers continued, Sindhuri alleged that Nag had stopped attending Covid-19 review meets convened by her. Hitting out at Nag, she said the MCC commissioner was made in-charge of CSR funds coming from private industries for the entire district but it was brought to her notice that whole of CSR funds were being used by the MCC.

"The MCC had also been submitting unsigned and contradictory ward wise Covid figures on new cases, deaths and active cases. I have ordered the same to be rectified," she said, countering Nag.

Transfer - the answer for all public spats

While 2009 batch IAS officer Sindhuri has been transferred to the post of Commissioner, Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments and 2014 batch officer Nag has been appointed as Director, E-governance, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department. Bagadi Gautam will be replacing Sindhuri as Deputy Commissioner and Lakshmikanth Reddy will be replacing Nag as MCC Commissioner.

With the Karnataka government stepping in to resolve the public spat, the answer seems to be simple and traditional - transfer.

This isn't the first time the state government has resorted to simply transferring the officers whose spat turned ugly and public. Karnataka IPS officer D Roopa was at the forefront of a raging controversy over the Safe City Project for Bengaluru, also involving IPS officer Hemant Nimbalkar, who was accused of floating a biased and unfair tender favouring a certain vendor and also alleged that the public sector unit BEL was wrongly disqualified in the tender. As the controversy got out of hand, both IPS officers were eventually transferred out of their posts.