Rohini Sindhuri (IAS Officer)

Some Lesser Known Facts About Rohini Sindhuri

• In 2014, Rohini was posted as the CEO of Mandya Zilla Panchayat. She had launched a drive to provide individual toilets to 1.02 lakh households during 2014–15. Due to her action for cleanliness, she came into limelight. Around 1 Lakh toilets were made in Mandya and it became No. 1 District in the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in the state and 3rd in India.

• After completing her engineering degree, Rohini worked with a company, Shell, for a brief peroid. However, her interest inclined towards pursuing a career in civil services, and she decided to prepare for UPSC examination. In an interview, on being asked about the reason behind preparing for the UPSC exam, Rohini replied,
  

  I did not want to end up designing boilers. Civil services is a profession which is close to  politics and  the media and everyday is a challenge.”

• She successfully utilised the central government’s Rs. 65 crores fund for drinking water. More than 100 drinking water units were instituted across the city. After being pleased with Rohini’s work, the central government gave Rs. 6 crores extra for the same purpose.

• She also called upon farmers to adopt sustainable farming. Apart from it, she also took the matter of female foeticide in the city seriously. To combat the problems of female foeticide, she ran a program to educate parents against the practice.

  

• As the CEO of Mandya Zilla Panchayat, she also launched an app for downloading property documents without running around offices.

• Due to her performance in Swacch Bharat Abhiyan (SBA) in Mandya District, the Union Government selected her as one of the three resource persons to train District Collectors in New Delhi in 2015.

• Her batchmate, IAS D. K. Ravi fell in love and proposed her for marriage but she refused as she was already married. After getting fallen apart, he committed suicide on 16 March 2015.

• In 2017, when Rohini was posted as a District Collector Hassan District, the District was at the 31st place in the SSLC (Secondary School Leaving Certificate) results. After two years in 2019, the District stood first. This all happened due to Rohini’s importance to reform the education system.

• Rohini also took on the Sand mafia, which was very prevalent in Hassan. She conducted raids and took strict actions against culprits.

• In 2018, she was transferred from Hassan District just after seven months service as a Hassan DC. The transfer was due to the pressure from the local politicians. However, she approached the High Court against the transfer. Later, the Cheif Minister, H D Kumaraswamy re-appointed her as the Hassan DC.

• Rohini was issued a show-cause notice by the state government on 23 February 2018 for not being present to greet the then-chief minister of Karnataka Siddaramaiah, who was invited to inaugurate the Mahamastakabhisheka, a Jain community event held at Shravanabelagola, on 7 February 2018. As per the government protocol, it is compulsory for the district deputy commissioner to receive and see off the chief minister during any event. Being the deputy commissioner of Hassan, Rohini failed to address Siddaramaiah at the event and eventually, she was issued a notice demanding an explanation for violating the government protocol.

• On 1 January 2019, Rohini launched Spandana Online Portal, an online grievance redressal system. With the help of this system, anyone can submit their grievances online easily due to which it becomes easy to assess the problems on priority and the administration can take necessary measures.

  

• She is fluent in several languages, including Kannada, Telugu, Hindi and English.

• M R Ravi, the deputy commissioner of Chamarajanagar, accused Rohini of not providing oxygen cylinders to the Chamarajanagar hospital in Karnataka, which eventually resulted in the demise of 24 Covid patients due to the shortage of oxygen in May 2021. On the contrary, Rohini claimed the allegations as baseless as and stated that she was not responsible for managing the oxygen supply. Thereafter, to investigate the matter, a Fact-Finding Committee was constituted by the Karnataka High Court, which exonerated Rohini from the allegations and stated that she had no connection with the supply of oxygen cylinders.

• S. R. Mahesh, an Indian politician and Janata Dal (Secular) candidate, accused Rohini Sindhuri of various allegations during her stint as the district commissioner of Mysuru on 20 May 2022. As a consequence, the Karnataka government instructed an investigation against Rohini for the allegations leveled at her, such as renovating Jala Sannidhi, a heritage property and the official residence of the deputy commissioner of Mysuru by building a swimming pool and a gym, purchasing environment-friendly cloth bags at a higher rate than usual from the Karnataka State Handloom Development Corporation (KHDC), and supplying wrong data related to the number of Covid deaths in the district. ^[14]The Statesman

• Rohini received 55.78% marks in her UPSC exam.