By Nandita Rani
The star performer and a rank holder in the IAS exams, 28-year old Durga Shakti Nagpal’s career was wrongly blotched with an allegation that was never true. She was suspended on charges of demolishing the walls of a religious site “inflaming” communal riots. The allegations, however, have been proved false. Nagpal was asked to visit Kadalpur village to stop illegal construction activities on government land and settle the matter amicably. Following the orders by the word, Nagpal along with other officers, visited the site and asked the villagers to either take permission from the government to build the religious structure or demolish the walls that had been built. When the officer reached the place, it was not clear what religious site it was. Moreover, no machineries were put to action for the demolition of the walls and the villagers themselves chose to dismantle the construction. The situation was handled patiently and as amicably to avoid any signs of communal tension.
But by doing so she had attracted the wrath of SP Lok Sabha aspirant whose business was getting affected due to the major crackdown she had executed. Ignoring the political affiliations in the case, the IAS officer, seized trucks, slapped fines and registered FIRs against the miscreants. The politician, by now, had exhausted all strings to get her transferred. The government, unwilling to lose out on the vote banks, not only said that the villagers should be allowed to build the structure, but also suspended the officer for “inflaming communal tensions”. It could have been accepted as an ‘administrative exercise’, but not anymore.
On one side where Mr. Chief Minister is defending his governments action of suspending the IAS officer who is just 3 yr old in the circuit, on the other side the former CM Ms. Mayawati is supporting Ms. Durga Shakti for her bold action, whereas the fact remains that there have been several cases of corruption against Ms. Mayawatis ministers during her tenure as CM as well.
A Samajwadi minister said -“These sort of officers like to make it out as if they are very honest and politicians are corrupt. She deserves harsher action,” But the real reason behind Nagpal’s suspension could be her action against the sand mafia. In the six months since she was posted to Gautam Buddha Nagar, Ms Nagpal ensured that nearly 30 trolleys of illegally-mined sand were confiscated; fines worth two crore were issued against those allegedly responsible.So, the government was under pressure to pounce because some of those punished for illegal sand mining have close ties to the Samajwadi Party. Apparently a Samajwadi Party leader who is aspiring to fight the next Lok Sabha polls had a stake in the sand mining activities in the district which were affected following Nagpal’s action. The IAS officer had acted against the sand mining activities disregarding political affiliations. Meanwhile, the central body of IAS officers has also demanded the UP government to revoke the suspension of Durga Shakti Nagpal and undo the wrong immediately. But the UP government seems to be in no mood to revoke the suspension.
A s citizens of a nation which is dealing with corruption day in day out, it is our responsibility to stand united against the action so that we have no such cases in future. Though the idea sounds cliché, nevertheless as they say- there is a silver lining behind every dark cloud.
Nandita.rani70@gmail.com