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UP Govt reinstates Durga Shakti
Shahira Naim/TNS

Lucknow, September 22
A day after presenting her case personally before Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, suspended 2010 batch IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal was re-instated today.

Ending a 57-day-long suspension period, a one-line statement this evening announced the reinstatement of Nagpal who was suspended on July 28, supposedly for being instrumental in the demolition of an under-construction wall of a mosque without following the due process.

It is, however, believed that she had to face the wrath of the state government for taking strict action against the politically connected illegal sand mining mafia of western Uttar Pradesh. The matter became so controversial that the state government went on the defensive. CM Yadav had on several occasions charged the media and the Opposition of creating hullabaloo over the suspension of an SDM to defame his government.

The IAS association had also taken up the case of Nagpal both at the state and the national level. On August 17, Nagpal had responded to the state government’s charge sheet accusing her of “poor administrative acumen and lack of foresight”. She had pleaded being not guilty to the charge of demolition of the under-construction wall of a mosque at Qadalpur village.

After her meeting with Samajwadi Party national president Mulayam Singh Yadav in late August, rumours of her reinstatement were doing the rounds. Principal Secretary RM Srivastava had been asked to submit his final report in the matter and the officer was expected to be reinstated before the commencement of the Vidhan Sabha session on September 16.