A government inquiry into the procurement of cloth bags by IAS officer Rohini Sindhuri during her tenure as the Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Mysuru found that she had violated the transparency law, resulting in the loss of crores of rupees of taxpayers' money. According to a preliminary report by Housing Department Secretary J Ravishankar, based on a complaint by KR Nagara MLA Sa Ra Mahesh and one Shailendra V Bhimarao, Rohini Sindhuri had approved the procurement of 14,71,458 cloth bags at a cost of Rs 52 per piece, bypassing the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurement (KTPP) Act. The complaint alleged that the same cloth bag was available in the market for Rs 10 to Rs 13 per piece.
The inquiry report found Rohini Sindhuri at fault on four counts. Firstly, she had failed to consider the exorbitant cost of the bags and had violated the KTPP Act. Secondly, she had spent funds meant for the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) in violation of the programme guidelines. Thirdly, she had failed to obtain an endorsement for the action plan from urban local bodies, and fourthly, she had violated the government order which set a financial limit of Rs 5 crore for a DC.
The KTPP Act section 4 (H) stipulates that the DC can only purchase cloth from the Karnataka Handloom Development Corporation. However, Rohini Sindhuri had purchased the bags made of cloth from the corporation, which is a violation of the KTPP Act and Rules. The local bodies' approval was not obtained during the procurement, and the procedure for placing the action plans for InformatIon, Education and Communication (IEC) programmes before the State High Powered Committee (SHPC) was not followed.
This comes after a public feud between the two high-ranking officials, IPS officer D Roopa Moudgil and IAS officer Rohini Sindhuri, had caused a stir in Karnataka, leading to both officers being transferred without new postings. The dispute began after a photo of Rohini sitting with a JD(S) MLA surfaced, prompting Roopa to question whether Rohini was compromising with a politician. This led to Roopa making numerous allegations of corruption and inappropriate behaviour against Rohini and sharing pictures that she claimed were sent by Rohini to male officers. Rohini dismissed the allegations as vengeance and suggested that Roopa was mentally unwell. The controversy prompted the Prime Minister's Office to request a response from Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, and the Karnataka government issued a gag order on Roopa.
