Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Monday condemned the suspension order handed out to Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Durga Shakti Nagpal and said that a 'goondaraj' was prevailing in the state.
Mayawati said that the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP)- led Uttar Pradesh government had no control over the law and order situation in the state.
"It has become clear now that in Uttar Pradesh instead of law and order authorities ruling the state, the mafia and goondas are ruling the state. The present state government has failed on all fronts including development. However, they have completely failed on the law and order front. The ruling government is also realizing that they cannot do anything about the law order situation. The rate of crime has become extremely high, as a result of the failure of the ruling state government," Mayawati told the media today.
Reiterating her stand that Nagpal's suspension was an act of complete unfairness, Mayawati said that the Uttar Pradesh government was using the young female officer as a scapegoat due to the strong stance that she had taken against the sand mafia.
"It seems to me that in the case of this female officer, there has been complete injustice. ...As I have said earlier, Durga Shakti Nagpal has been a victim at the hands of the state government because of the good work she was doing against the sand mafia. The suspension stands proof to the fact that any honest and sincere officer cannot work without difficulty in Uttar Pradesh," Mayawati said.
Mayawati urged the Uttar Pradesh Governor and the Central Government to intervene in the matter and said that she welcomes the assurance given this morning by the Prime Minister regarding Durga Shakti Nagpal .
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Speaking to the media outside the Parliament House on the first day of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh broke his silence on the U.P. IAS officer's suspension.
"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," Dr. Singh told the media .
According to media reports, the Centre has sent three letters to Akhilesh Yadav's Uttar Pradesh government asking for a report on the IAS officer's suspension.
Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has maintained his stand on the suspension and defended the order on Monday.
"If an official makes a mistake then the government punishes the official. This is the way government works," Yadav said .
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 Minister, 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 ostensibly for taking on the sand mafia and a charge-sheet was issued to her '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.