Councillors of the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) led by in-charge Mayor Anwar Baig held a demonstration in the city on Friday urging the government to retain Shilpa Nag as the Commissioner.
There were similar demonstrations by civic workers including pourakarmikas while ‘’I stand with our Commissioner – madam Shilpa Nag’’ was trending on social media. But there were as many supporters for Deputy Commissioner Rohini Sindhuri too while most sought for a closure of their public spat and concentrate on handling the pandemic.
Ms. Nag had announced her resignation from the civil services at a press conference on Thursday alleging harassment by Ms. Sindhuri, bringing to the fore the lack of cohesion and simmering discontent over the handling and management of the pandemic.
Mr. Anwar Baig said soon after Ms. Nag announced her resignation the corporators met and decided to hold a demonstration in her support and will urge the government to not accept her resignation. “We want Ms. Shilpa Nag to be reinstated as the Commissioner of MCC and this is the general opinion of all councillors cutting across party lines’’, Mr. Baig said.
The corporators will also submit a memorandum to the district in-charge Minister S.T. Somashekar and seek the transfer of Ms. Sindhuri, he added.
Meanwhile, Ms.Shilpa Nag – whose resignation is yet to be accepted – was conspicuous by her absence at the function held to celebrate the birth anniversary of Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar while Ms. Sindhuri was present.
The latter reiterated her stance and told mediapersons that she had only sought for rectification of figures as there was a mismatch in data emerging from the war room and the MCC. Ms. Sindhuri also stood by her decision to seek details on how the CSR contributions were utilised adding that in case of any grievances it has to be resolved through proper channels.
Mr. Somashekar said that the focus was on reducing COVID-19 cases in Mysuru district and the tussle between the two IAS officers will be resolved by the Chief Secretary later in the day. Congress leader R. Dhruvanarayan sought Mr. Somashekar’s resignation stating that he had failed to rein in the officials and ensure greater coordination among them as a result of which there was ‘mismanagement’ on the COVID-19 front in Mysuru district.
