SP indulging in vote bank politics by suspending 'honest' IAS officer: BJP

Accuses SP of protecting mining mafias

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesman Siddharth Nath Singh on Saturday criticized the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) for cashing in on vote bank politics through the suspension of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Durga Shakti Nagpal.

"The SP has created a scenario of communal violence and indulged in vote bank politics to secure the support of the minorities, particularly Muslims, and on basis of that, they suspended her (Nagpal). This is unfortunate, and we have seen in the past, that no action in Uttar Pradesh has been taken on communal violence by this government," he said.

Singh further accused the Samajwadi Party (SP) of protecting mining mafias by acting against honest bureaucrats in the state.

"SP is acting against honest officers, they are demoralizing good officers in Uttar Pradesh doing good job and also at the same time SP is protecting the mining mafias because there is a culture of 'gundaraj'," he added.

He said that according to the Ministry of Home Affairs, there have been 34 cases of communal violence, with the major ones taking place in Lucknow, Allahabad, Bareilly, Kanpur and Moradabad in the last one year of Akhilesh Yadav's government.

He questioned as to why no action was being taken by the Uttar Pradesh Government in this regard.

"An honest officer Durga Shakti Nagpal has been penalized when there was no communal violence, there was no report, and only a conspiracy created to throw her out from the position she was holding, because she was fighting and doing her job of catching mining mafias," he added.

The Samajwadi Party Government has described the suspension of the 2009-batch IAS officer as an 'administrative decision', as her orders to demolish a mosque could cause communal tension.

The All India IAS Officers Association has also met Minister for Personnel V. Narayanasamy in New Delhi, and submitted a memorandum, saying that the suspension of Gautam Budh Nagar Sub-Divisional Magistrate Durga Shakti Nagpal be revoked.

She had cracked down on illegal mining in Greater Noida in the last few weeks, seizing nearly 300 trolleys of sand from the Yamuna river bed. She had also formed special flying squads to check the menace, rampant along the Yamuna and Hindon rivers in western Uttar Pradesh.