In a letter written to the Chairman of the Namma Bengaluru Foundation, a non-profit organisation based out of Bengaluru, Inspector General of Police (Home Guard and Civil Defence, Bengaluru) D Roopa IPS has said that she would not be participating in their annual Awards.
Namma Bengaluru Awards are given to multiple personalities across categories by the foundation funded by businessman and BJP Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar. This is the ninth edition of the awards.
Roopa had written on Saturday to the CEO of NBF Sridhar Pabbisetty a day before the he recipient of the award is set to be announced.
Roopa was nominated for the Government Official of the Year category. Eight government officers including Roopa have been shortlisted for the award and the winner will be announced at an event in Bengaluru.
In her letter to Pabbisetty, the top cop has thanked NBF for recognising her efforts but said that she can’t accept the award as it also has a high cash reward.
She also emphasised, “Every government servant is expected to maintain neutrality and equidistance from all quasi-political bodies and associations that have even the bare minimum political overtone. Only then a public servant can maintain a clean and fair image in the eyes of the public.”
She added, “It becomes all the more relevant now in the view of the ensuing elections.”
In the letter, Roopa congratulated NBF for their “benevolent gesture” and their citizen centric work and said that she will support all citizen-centric or social work.
Roopa's decision comes a day after Rajeev Chandrasekhar was elected as BJP's Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka. A source close to Roopa said that she preferred to decline her participation rather than return the award, if she eventually turned out to be the winner.
Roopa is first Kannadiga woman police officer to be posted in her home state. She has been transferred 17 times in her career. Prior to her IGP posting was temporarily transferred to Traffic and Road Safety Department.
She hogged the headlines in 2017 when she exposed the VIP treatment meted to influential prisoners in Bengaluru’s Parappana Agrahara central prison during her stint as the DIG Prisons.
NBF is an apolitical platform for many civic issues involving the city. The NGO is also party to many cases in courts involving the civic bodies, state government regarding civic and environmental issues.