M A I N   N E W S

Ensure justice to UP IAS officer, Sonia tells PM
Tribune News Service & PTI

New Delhi, August 3
Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi today asked the Centre to ensure that young UP IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal is not treated unfairly while expressing concern over the reports that her suspension was on account of the action against those involved in illegal activity.

“There is widespread concern because the officer, in the course of her public duty, was seen to be standing up to vested interests engaging in illegal activity. We must ensure that the officer is not unfairly treated”, Sonia wrote in her letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Citing the case, she said the incident highlighted the need to assess whether there are adequate safeguards in place to protect executive functionaries working beyond the average call of duty to uphold the law. “The implementation machinery must feel that the conditions are conducive to the delivery of public services without fear or favour. I know that some good beginnings have been made towards administrative reforms, but the issues that have come to be profiled in Ms Nagpal’s case also need focus”, the letter said.

Nagpal, a 2010 batch IAS officer, was suspended on July 27 as Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Gautam Budh Nagar district for allegedly ordering demolition of a wall of a mosque on the ground that it could have triggered communal tension.

Nagpal is attached to the Board of Revenue in Lucknow. The Prime Minister had declined to answer queries about Nagpal after the all-party meeting called by Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath had replied in the negative when asked whether the issue can be raised in Parliament. “It is a state issue. I do not think...,” he had replied.

Sonia’s letter to the Prime Minister has come amid the growing demand for revoking the suspension of the IAS officer.