DC exposé: Rohini transferred! Another honest officer pays the price

Bengaluru: Less than 24 hours after reinstating senior IAS officer, Munish Moudgil as Commissioner of Survey and Settlements after his controversial transfer, the state government transferred another IAS officer, Rohini Sindhuri Dasari on Saturday in similar circumstances.

While a cabinet minister allegedly played a role in Mr Moudgil's transfer, in Ms Dasari's case, a BJP MP is allegedly instrumental in her removal as Secretary, Karnataka Building and Construction Workers Welfare Board (KBCWWB).

Sources in the government said an IAS officer, who wanted Ms Dasari to follow his suggestions on the board, used the influence of a BJP MP to have her transferred when she refused.

The KBCWWB comes under the labour department, which has an annual budget of Rs 100 crore . While 80 per cent of this goes towards meeting the salary of its employees, the big prize is KBCWWB's corpus of Rs 8,000 crore collected from the welfare cess paid by builders and individuals constructing houses.

Ms Sindhuri has been given no posting, while labour commissioner, KBCWWB, K.G. Shantaram has been given the additional responsibility of board secretary. After Ms Dasari took over as secretary of the board, she streamlined its programmes and planned to launch three more to link all the labourers to Ayushman Bharat, train the unskilled construction labourers and open crèches near big construction sites.

She had called for tenders and was planning to rope in professional training centres to impart skills to labourers, when a senior IAS officer suggested she award the tenders to non-existent or dubious companies and groups, according to sources.

When Ms Dasari refused, the officer used a BJP MP's influence to have her transferred, sources in the department of personnel and administrative reforms (DPAR) said. Ms Dasari had made headlines when as Hassan deputy commissioner, she had a running feud with senior JD(S) leader, H.D. Revanna after exposing a sand mining racket in the district. Interestingly, the BJP had backed Ms Dasari then, but seems to have fallen foul of her too.