Durga Nagpal was doing her duty, reinstate her, demands UP Wakf Board

UP Wakf Board has come out extending full support to suspended Uttar Pradesh IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal and demanding UP govt to reinstate her on the ground that she had no role in bringing down the wall of mosque in Greater Noida.

According to a letter addressed by the Wakf Board to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav copies of which have also been sent to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and Gautam Budh Nagar District Magistrate Kumar Ravikant Singh, the IAS officer did not order the demolition of the mosque wall as claimed by the state government.

A team of the committee connected to the Wakf Board visited Kadalpur, the village where the wall was demolished, after the incident and their report in fact praises Durga for beginning the process of reclaiming Wakf Board land which was allegedly encroached upon by the sand mining and land mafia.

"I am going to submit memorandum to the Prime Minister through the District Magistrate to reinstate Durga. She was only doing her duty and became a victim not only of sand mafia but also land mafia which has occupied Wakf land in the area. The Samajwadi Party is trying to make it political by saying demolition would have let to communal riots but it is a Muslim majority village so there is no question of riots," said Kadir Khan, Secretary of the Hazrat Syed Bhureshah Committee, which is connected to the Wakf Board.

Earlier on Monday, Punjab Civil Service officers in Chandigarh had come out in support of  Durga Shakti Nagpal saying it appears she was targeted for not bowing to political pressure.

The Uttar Pradesh government had suspended the Greater Noida SDM for allegedly demolishing wall of a religious structure and later chargesheeted her despite an ongoing nationwide furore on the issue.

Her suspension has evoked sharp reaction from opposition parties, including BJP and BSP, which alleged that Nagpal, who was working as Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) in the Gautam Budh Nagar area of the state, was removed after her crackdown against the sand mafia operating in the area under her jurisdiction.