woman IAS officer, who had clamped down
on illegal mining and resolutely taken head on
the powerful sand mafia in Uttar Pradesh, has
been suspended barely 10 months after she
got her first posting in the State.
A 2009-batch IAS officer posted as Sub-
Divisional Magistrate (SDM) of Gautam Budh
Nagar in September last year, 28-year-old
Durga Shakti Nagpal was penalised ostensibly
for the demolition of a wall at a disputed
place of worship.
“It is an administrative decision. She had
ordered demolition of the wall at a place of
worship,” Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said
in a post on Sunday on micro-blogging site
twitter.
Slamming the SP government, Opposition
parties alleged that the suspension order was
made under pressure from the mining mafia.
Reacting sharply to the SDM’s suspension, BJP
leader Kalraj Mishra said that the action of
the State Government showed “it is not liking
those officers who are leading drives against
the mafia“.
“What mistake has she made?... It is not
understood. But it is felt that she (Durga
Shakti) was suspended under the influence of
the mafia,” he said.
A senior official said, “Durga Shakti Nagpal,
the 2009-batch IAS officer posted as SDM
(Sadar) of GB Nagar, (was) suspended late on
Saturday by the Uttar Pradesh Government
after a dispute related to a religious place,” a
senior official said here.
Ms. Nagpal had led a crackdown on
unauthorised mining in the district and got
over two dozen FIRs registered against those
involved in illegally removing sand.
Special flying squads were formed by her to
stop the raging menace along the Yamuna and
Hindon rivers in western U.P.
Only last week the officer had asserted that
there will be no let-up in the fight against
unauthorised dredgers.
“The entire district has been affected and
illegal mining has become a huge problem.
The stakes are too high and those involved get
huge monetary returns. The act could lead to
serious environmental issues and, therefore,
needs to be stopped,” she had warned.
A Punjab cadre IAS officer, Ms. Nagpal had
led the seizure of 24 dumpers engaged in
illegal quarrying last week resulting in the
arrest of 15 persons.
She came into the spotlight through her no-
nonsense, iron-fist approach to stop the
illegal operations of the sand mafia in the
Noida region. “We are conducting raids on a
daily basis on sand mafia and their units. A
list of illegal sand mining units has been
prepared and action is being taken against
them,” she had warned.
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