Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Monday said his son and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's move to suspend the 2009-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Durga Shakti Nagpal is absolutely correct.
"It is a correct decision. If the government had not taken a decision it would have been a problem," he told media outside the Parliament here.
Yadav, however, refused to comment on whether the suspension would be revoked.
Amid a deepening political row over the officer's suspension, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister today questioned the 'outcry', and said the officers are punished if they make mistakes.
"If an officer makes a mistake, he or she is punished, just like children are punished in school. That is how a government works," he told media in Lucknow.
Commenting on Nagpal's suspension, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh earlier in the day said there are rules laid down and that will be followed.
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"There are rules laid down and the rules will be followed. And we are in touch with the state government to find out the full details of the case," said Dr. Singh.
The Prime Minister's remark came hours after the Uttar Pradesh Government slapped a chargesheet accusing Nagpal of flouting norms and lacking administrative acumen.
According to reports, a copy of the chargesheet along with a report has been sent to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) at the Centre.
The Samajwadi Party government's 10-page chargesheet accuses Nagpal of violating norms while ordering the demolition of the wall of a mosque built illegally on government land at Gautam Budh Nagar in Greater Noida.
The chargesheet came a day after Congress President Sonia Gandhi wrote a letter to the Prime, asking him to ensure that the suspended bureaucrat is treated fairly.
The Congress Party yesterday hit out at the Samajwadi Party for attacking Sonia Gandhi for her support to Nagpal, and said the ruling party in Uttar Pradesh is trying to hide what is essentially a case of corruption and illegal mining.
Congress spokesperson Sandeep Dikshit also dismissed Samajwadi Party's comments that Gandhi should also write a letter in support of Ashok Khemka, the Haryana IAS officer who had scrapped her son-in-law Robert Vadra's controversial land deals and was transferred.
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.