Politicians critical of UP Government over suspension of IAS officer

New Delhi, Aug 4 (ANI): Politicians have criticized the Uttar Pradesh Government over the suspension of IAS officer, Durga Shakti Nagpal, after Congress President Sonia Gandhi wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking him to intervene in the case.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Sunday said that though Sonia Gandhi's concern was genuine but she should also offer the same sympathy to other officers who are mistreated by the successive governments in Congress ruled states.

"Sonia Gandhi's letter expressing her concern for Durga Shakti Nagpal is understandable. But it would have been much better if she would have focused on those cases which were reported from the states where her party is in majority like Haryana and Rajasthan," he said.

Various politicians cutting across party lines have expressed their concern for the treatment meted out to the suspended officer by Akhilesh Yadav-led UP Government.

Meanwhile Congress leader Meem Afzal said that it was time that the Uttar Pradesh Government takes a definitive decision over this issue.

"Our honourable president wrote a letter to the Prime Minister and the matter was discussed in depth and it has also been reported in the media that she asked the PM to intervene. I think its time the government of Uttar Pradesh should take a decision on this issue now," he said.

According to reports, Sonia Gandhi on August 3 had told the Prime Minister in her letter that though the matter is between the Uttar Pradesh Government and the IAS officer, the Central Government should see how it can intervene in it.

Sonia Gandhi's letter comes three days after representatives of the Central IAS officers' Association met Minister of State in PMO V. Narayanasamy to demand justice for Nagpal.

Nagpal was suspended last month ostensibly for taking on the sand mafia and for ordering the demolition of a wall of a mosque that was being built on government land in the state's Gautam Buddh Nagar District, where she was posted as Sub-Divisional Magistrate.

According to reports, the 2009-batch IAS officer had seized nearly 300 trolleys of sand being illegally mined from the Yamuna river bed.

Though the Uttar Pradesh Government has called it as an 'administrative decision', against her for demolishing a wall which was part of an intended mosque, but many believe that it was the result of pressure from the mining mafia. (ANI)