IANS/New Delhi/Lucknow
The Samajwadi Party yesterday hardened its stand on suspended Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Durga Shakti Nagpal, saying any official in the wrong will face the music, as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said his government was seeking details on the case from Uttar Pradesh.
As the war of words between the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the temperamental ally Samajwadi Party entered the third day, the prime minister broke his silence, two days after Congress president Sonia Gandhi wrote to him seeking justice for the 28-year-old Nagpal.
Despite mounting criticism of the suspension of Nagpal, who acted against a mafia mining sand illegally from rivers, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav again justified his government’s decision.
He said his government acted in line with service rules. “Any official who does a wrong will be punished... There are no two thoughts about this,” he said at a function in Lucknow.
“If an officer makes a mistake, he or she is punished,” he added. “That is how a government works.”
Nagpal, a former sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) in Noida, was suspended for allegedly ordering the razing of a mosque wall. But most people believe it was her drive against the politically-influential sand mafia that did her in.
Akhilesh Yadav demanded to know why the media was giving so much prominence to Nagpal, and cited the cases of many other officials who were suspended across India.
In New Delhi, Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav declared that Uttar Pradesh didn’t need IAS officers.
“Withdraw all of them, we will manage with our state officers,” the aggressive Rajya Sabha MP said. The central government, he said, could call back all IAS officers from Uttar Pradesh.
The UPA-Samajwadi Party row only deepened, with the prime minister saying there were rules governing government officers.
“They (rules) will be followed. We are in touch with the state government to get details of the case,” he said.
Upset over Sonia Gandhi’s intervention over Nagpal, the Samajwadi Party reiterated it will oppose the Congress-sponsored food security bill in parliament.
Singh has appealed for support from all parties for the bill.
In a related development, the National Green Tribunal yesterday banned sand mining from river beds across the country without prior environmental clearance.
Issuing notice to chief secretaries of all states, it said large-scale mining was going on in clear violation of laws, causing massive losses to the state.
A five-member bench headed by tribunal chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar asked the states to respond by August 14.
“We restrain any person, company, authority to carry out any mining activity or removal of sand, from river beds anywhere in the country without obtaining environmental clearance ... and licence from the competent authorities,” the order said.
The tribunal said removal of minerals from river beds was threatening their flow, forests on river banks and harming environment in the areas.
The tribunal said there were reports of large-scale illegal and impermissible mining on the bank of Yamuna, Ganges, Chambal, Gaumti and Revati rivers among others in the country.
Speaking to reporters after the decree, Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan said “illegal sand mining is violation of the law” and promised “crackdown against violators.”
“Sand mining on the flood plains of rivers leads to natural hazards and I ... may send a fact finding team to Noida,” she said.
Environmentalists hailed the decision.
“This is a good verdict but the enforcement agencies are the state governments and state police which many times work in connivance with sand mining mafias,” said Vimlendu Jha of Swecha, an NGO working for saving Yamuna.