She's an upright IAS officer, but the state government here is no mood to appreciate that. Last week senior IAS officer Rashmi V. Mahesh was assaulted by the contact staff at the Administrative Training Institute (ATI) in Mysore, following which she revealed that she was attacked for her probe report into a scam at the institute. But now the state government has issued her a notice for revealing details of the Rs 100-crore scam at ATI.

Rashmi, who is the director general (DG) of ATI, suffered injuries, including a blood clot in her head, injury in her eyebut was undeterred and revealed to the media. Apparently, Rashmi blew the whistle after the state government chose to remain silent over her inquiry report into the scam.

Known for taking the mighty head-on, Rashmi was shunted from one posting to another in the past after she refused to toe the government's diktat. When she was the Medical Education Department secretary, the government had sent her on "forced leave" after Rashmi refused to entertain requests from politicians - who manage medical colleges in Karnataka - over seat-sharing matrix.

In her report on ATI submitted, Rashmi said that largescale irregularities were committed between 2008 and 2014 --- when another IAS officer Amita Prasad was the DG of ATI --- resulting in loss of over Rs 100 crore to the state government.

The report also observed that at ATI --- where gazetted probationers of the Karnataka Civil Services undergo training --- posts were created by Prasad without necessary sanctions. Moreover, contract staffs were absorbed without sanction orders; faculty was appointed directly without application and selection process; and three manpower agencies were chosen without issuing tenders.