A young woman IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal, proving justification to the name her Punjabi parents had given and who has joined the post barely for one year, has taken on the brazen sand mining mafia in Gautam Budh Nagar, where she joined as.sub-divisional magistrate.
The brave and young lady officer took the initiative from the beginning to act on illegal sand mining by land mafias.She said that the entire district has been affected by such illegal mining and leading to serious environmental issues. and,therefore,needs to be stopped.Since the lady officer took initiative : Special flying squads had been formed to stop the raging menace, the UP police had lodged 17 FIRs over the problem and got orders for arrest of illegal sand dredgers.in 22 cases by the chief judicial magistrates in last month only, while the concerned mining department lodged complaint with the police against 55 people in Greater Noida. 297 vehicles and machinery involved in illegal sand mining were seized, collected fines to the tune of Rs one crore and fifteen alleged offenders have also been arrested.recently.But as the stakes were too high and huge monetary returns, those involved were too powerful politically and that forced the Govt to act against the unbending officer.
Durga Shakti Nagpal's Honesty Punished
Outlining her plans, Durga Shakti Nagpal had said earlier that she is gearing up to undertake random raids in different pockets of the district. Many villages were likely to be her target in the joint effort involving officials of the revenue,police and transport departments, while warning to anyone passing on information about impending raids to the sand mining lobby would also be taken to task, she ordered.
Durga Shakti Nagpal had prepared a list of sand mining units operating illegally in the region and it is believed that a local Samajwadi Party leader Narendra Bhati, who is allegedly linked to the mining mafia, had put pressure on the party leadership to get the officer shifted. Once the blatant order took strong political overtones Bhati said,"I merely informed the authorities that the wall of the mosque has been brought down. After that they took the action against Durga Nagpal. Nothing more should be read into this," .
The infamous (for similar acts) bureaucrat and whistle blower IAS Officer Ashok Khemka said, "Damages should be imposed against those who take arbitrary decisions against honest IAS officers," .
Awaaz Foundation, an NGO working on illegal sand mining for over a decade, would like to register it’s strong protest against the transfer of...Illegal sand mining is threatening coastal and river biodiversity all over the country. Mafias operate these illegal businesses and are often protected by politicians. An officer who upholds the law and cracks down against illegality should be rewarded, not be suspended the foundation asked to Ms. Jayanthi Natarajan, Union Minister of Environment and Forests Congress leader Digvijay Singh has alleged that sand mafia is running governments in UP and MP.
Brinda Karat , the CPM. leader has said the immediate suspension of IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal was uncalled for as it sends a ‘distressing’ message to other female aspirants to civil service in the country. She said to suspend a female officer right away is extremely demoralising and incorrect and accepted that the number of female officers in the IAS is low,while Nagpal’s work showed her strong commitment to her job responsibility as a female officer in an extremely difficult district where, she has acted strongly against the sand mafia. Karat also said that the sand mafia only will be happy with this suspension.
SP general secretary Ramgopal Yadav in a surprising move has come to the suspended official’s aid and asked the UP chief minister to review his decision.
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.
UP IAS officers association president Alok Ranjan has said that the association has put forth its demand , when they met the chief secretary and requested him to revoke Durga Shakti Nagpal's suspension.The association has also offered a high-level enquiry into any "mistake" that may have been done by Nagpal while going to demolish the wall of a religious shrine.
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.
BUT the local police in Gautum Budh Nagar on Monday deflated the CM's contention by stating that there was no communal flare-up in the area.Adding credibility to the police claims is the fact that the government had not received any field report regarding communal tension in GB Nagar on Saturday. Sources in the state home department said such serious action is initiated against an officer only on the basis of a field report which outlines the need for urgency in such actions.
As per the media report the government claimed Nagpal was suspended for demolishing an under-construction boundary wall of a mosque in Qadalpura village under Rabupura police circle on Saturday afternoon. Station Officer of Rabupura police station, senior sub inspector Ajay Kumar, said that all was well in the area.Yes the officer Durga Shakti Nagpal had won the wrath of illegal sand miners. The question is whether Durga Nagpal mishandled the situation on Saturday. The villagers in Kadalpur say she came without an order to bring down the wall of the mosque and ever since the construction began in the last two months, no notice was served.But all the religious communities had given their consent in the construction of the mosque and that it was being done on a village land which wasn't illegal. But within the bureaucracy of UP, Durga's suspension is being looked at as political high handedness.
Sources at Rabupura police station said that no communal tension in the area and the demolition of the wall in question was so quiet an affair that the local police decided not even to mention it in the general diary of the police station — till Sunday afternoon at least.SSI Ajay Kumar further added,"There was no tension at all. You can verify it from media persons who were present here in GB Nagar. I have reasons to believe that not one of them was even aware of the demolition till Sunday night," . Asked if there had been police deployment at the demolition site and if any criminal case had been lodged against mischief-mongers trying to fuel communal passions, the officer replied, and blasted why to lodge a case when nothing of this sort happened.