Bengaluru Mysuru City corporation commissioner Shilpa Nag on Thursday announced her resignation from the Indian Administrative Services during a press conference citing ‘humiliation’ and that she cannot work in a ‘suffocating environment’.
“With deep sorrow and regret, I am hereby submitting my resignation to the Indian Administrative Service . I humbly ask your kind self to accept this and relieve me of my moral dilemma, pain and sorrow for the sacrilege of the sacred service we have taken oath to serve and protect,” Nag said on Thursday in Mysuru, about 125 kms from Bengaluru.
A 2014 batch officer, Nag’s resignation has rekindled the debate against the functioning of the district administration of Mysuru.
Nag made an apparent reference to Rohini Sindhuri, the Mysuru deputy collector, who has been at the receiving end of criticism from other political leaders including the Janata Dal (Secular) or JD(S) and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa on Thursday said that he had no knowledge of Nag’s resignation and said that he would comment once he gets all the information.
Nag said that she is sending her resignation to the chief secretary.
The IAS officer, who has served in various positions in different districts in her tenure, said that she was being targeted and “humiliated” time and again.
She said that despite getting most of the work done in her corporation limits, there were calls being made to her office citing dereliction of duty in preparation of the Covid-19 pandemic in the city.
“They are meting out insults and spreading misinformation. No one should work with so much arrogance,” she said, making another apparent reference to Sindhuri. “I cannot work in this suffocating environment,” she added.
Sindhuri was also the target of her colleagues from other districts when at least 24 persons died due to shortage of Oxygen in Chamarajanagar, about 40 kms from Mysuru.
Denying all allegations, Sindhuri on Thursday said, “It is untrue that there was any harassment from me and none has been mentioned even in the statement issued by Smt Shilpa Nag”.
She said that her entire focus has been towards managing Covid-19 alone. The Mysuru DC even alleged that Nag had stopped attending Covid-19 reviews.“The Mysuru City Corporation was submitting unsigned and contradictory ward wise Covid-19 figures on new cases, deaths and active cases. I had ordered that same be rectified,” Sindhuri said.
She added that by asking Covid care centres to be opened and other pandemic related work “constitutes harassment by any stretch of imagination”.
She even said that Nag is yet to furnish details of CSR coming in from private companies towards the pandemic and other works.
“It is for everyone to note that over the last 10 days Smt Shilpa has been issuing statements to press and media against the District Administration. A conduct not expected from a Mysuru City Commissioner,” Sindhuri added.
