Durga Shakti Nagpal

Some Lesser Known Facts About Durga Shakti Nagpal

• Durga Shakti Nagpal is an IAS officer who came into the limelight in 2013 when she was suspended by the UP Government for her actions against corruption and illegal sand mining.

• Her father was also a government employee who was awarded the President’s Medal for his distinguished service at the Delhi Cantonment Board.

• Reportedly, she is an introvert, and she does not like to socialize much. However, she cares deeply about her responsibilities and does whatever she can to fulfil them.

• She cracked the UPSC Examination in the year 2009 and achieved an All India Rank of 20.

• Nagpal passed the UPSC Examination in her first attempt, and she was allotted the IRS (Indian Revenue Service). She joined her training for the IRS, but she wanted to be an IAS. Hence, she attempted the UPSC examination once again during her training, she got selected for IAS this time.

  

• In June 2011, she was allotted the Punjab Cadre, and her first posting was in the Mohali District Administration. She served in Mohali for fourteen months and even exposed a land scam.

• In August 2012, she was deputed to Uttar Pradesh to join as the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) of Sadar, Noida.

• To put a stop on illegal sand mining, she took action and formed a flying squad with officers from the Uttar Pradesh Police. The squad filed 17 FIRs by monitoring illegal sand mining, and the Chief Judicial Magistrate also ordered the arrest of illegal sand miners in 22 cases.

• She came into the limelight after taking an action against the “sand mafia” in Greater Noida to stop illegal sand-mining on the banks of the Yamuna and Hindon rivers. Following her orders, the police impounded 297 vehicles and machinery, which were being used for illegal mining and collected fines worth 8.23 lacs INR.

• Her actions against the sand mafia did not go down well, and the mafia, with the help of some politicians, got her suspended from duty. Reportedly, she was lured into a trap when she was ordered to take down the wall of a mosque, which was being illegally constructed in the Kadalpur village. Even though she took down the wall according to the orders she was given, she faced widespread criticism from the locals and politicians, following which she was suspended.

• On 28 July 2013, following her suspension, persons like Kiran Bedi, many retired IAS officers, former cabinet secretaries, the former CAG Vinod Rai, and the All India IAS Association (national body of IAS officers) came out in her support and termed the government’s actions “wrong.” They said that Nagpal was suspended due to her stringent actions against the sand mafia and called her suspension “a demoralizing action by the government.”

• On 11 October 2014, Nagpal’s husband, Abhishek Singh, who was the SDM of Mahawan, Mathura was also suspended by the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Akhilesh Yadav, for allegedly treating a teacher, Fauran Singh, in an inhumane manner. Reportedly, it was a false charge and the UP Government was targetting Nagpal’s family due to the backlash they faced after Nagpal’s suspension. Abhishek Singh denied all charges against him.

• The IAS Association demanded a high-level probe into her suspension and an online petition was also started to revoke her suspension. Even though the UP Government said that Durga was suspended as she had caused communal tension by taking down the mosque wall, several IAS officers countered the government and said that it was highly unlikely that a communal tension would be caused by taking down a wall and also that no IAS officer had been suspended after the riots of Muzaffarnagar, Mathura, Faizabad, and many more. They alleged that her suspension was politically motivated.

  

• On 22 September 2013, her suspension was revoked by the UP Government after massive public pressure from all factions of the society. On 5 October 2013, she was appointed as the Joint Magistrate of Kanpur Dehat.

• On 9 December 2019, film producers Sunir Kheterpal and Robby Grewal announced that they will be collaborating and making a biopic on the life story of Durga Shakti Nagpal. Interestingly, Sunir has produced films like “Badla” and “Kesari.”

• In January 2022, it was announced that Deepika Padukone will play the lead role in Nagpal’s biopic. ^[2]The Tribune In an interview, she talked about her biopic. She said,

My biopic must inspire girl child, parents. Given a chance, I would love to relive it all again as within a span of 3-4 months I learnt more than what I would have learned in 4-5 years. Whatever I am is because of my parents and upbringing. They made me brave, bold and courageous. I want that to be portrayed in the movie”