Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday justified his government's decision to suspend a woman IAS officer, claiming that her decision to stop the construction of a mosque during the holy month of Ramzan, could have created problems in the state.
"To prevent communal tension and avoid dispute in village, sometimes we have to take such 'administrative decisions'," he said here today.
Durga Shakti Nagpal, the Sub-Divisional magistrate of Greater Noida, was removed after she ordered the demolition of a mosque being built illegally on government land in Greater Noida on Saturday.
She had recently taken on the powerful sand mafia in Uttar Pradesh, seizing nearly 300 trolleys of sand from the Yamuna river bed.
Though the Uttar Pradesh government has called it as an 'administrative decision', but many believe that it was a result of pressure from the mining mafia.
According to reports, Durga Nagpal said: "We have acted against these people, we face implicit threats."
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The Opposition launched a scathing attack on the government, saying that there has been a complete break down of law and order since the day Akhilesh Yadav became the Chief Minister of the state.
"There is a complete break down of law and order machinery, we have also seen that corrupt officers are being provided protection by the government and in almost all fronts, from development to law and order to punishing honest officers, people of Uttar Pradesh and the entire country has seen it," Bahujan Samaj Party leader Sudhindra Bhadoria said.