IAS officers, politicians condemn the suspension of Durga Shakti Nagpal

LUCKNOW/NEW DELHI: The suspension of IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal, who had taken on the mining mafia in Greater Noida region, has embarrassed the Akhilesh Yadav government. The IAS lobby has lodged a protest with the chief secretary and political parties condemned the decision. However, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav defended the suspension, saying that it was done to prevent a communal flare up.

A probationary IAS officer, Nagpal was suspended on Saturday for ordering the demolition of a wall around a masjid in Kadalpur village of Greater Noida. The wall was on gram sabha land and there is a Supreme Court order not to allow any unauthorised religious structure on public land.

Nagpal had won the wrath of illegal sand miners. She was posted as SDM of Greater Noida ( Gautam Budh Nagar) since September 2012 and had acted against illegal sand miners along the Yamuna and Hindon rivers, impounding more than 297 vehicles, including dumpers and machinery used for digging. The UP IAS Association raised the issue with acting Chief Secretary Alok Ranjan. Secretary of the IAS Association, Parthsarthi Sen Sharma, said, “We met the Chief Secretary and requested him to revoke Nagpal’s suspension”.

Political parties too condemned the government action. Even SP General Secretary Ram Gopal Yadav said the manner in which Nagpal was suspended was wrong. Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said: “Sand mafia is operating not only under the present government in UP but even under the previous regime. This is the same sand mafia, which is working in Madhya Pradesh.” BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley said Nagpal was suspended by SP government for demolishing the wall around a masjid and it pointed to minority appeasement by the state government.