With the controversy surrounding the suspension of IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal yet to die down, her husband Abhishek Singh was on Wednesday transferred from the post of Executive Officer of Dadri Municipality in Ghaziabad district. An officer of the 2011 batch, Mr. Singh has been made the Joint Magistrate of Jhansi. He is among the 16 officers who have been appointed Joint Magistrates of different districts.
The transfer orders were issued late on Wednesday night and unlike the common practice of the batch of the transferred bureaucrat being mentioned in the release in this case, the batches of the 16 IAS officers posted as Joint Magistrates have not been mentioned.
A posting in Jhansi in the backward Bundelkhand region of the State is considered relatively insignificant as compared to the postings in Ghaziabad district, and in Noida and Greater Noida (both in Gautam Buddha Nagar district). It was after her marriage with Mr. Singh, who was posted in Ghaziabad district, that Ms. Nagpal was posted as Sub Divisional Magistrate (Sadar) in Gautam Buddha Nagar district. An officer of the 2010 batch, Ms. Nagpal belongs to the Punjab cadre, but her cadre was changed to Uttar Pradesh following her marriage. She was posted to Gautam Buddha Nagar district only in September, 2012.
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Ms. Nagpal was suspended on July 27 ostensibly for taking on the powerful sand mining mafia in Noida and Greater Noida although the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister maintained that she was suspended for arbitrarily ordering the demolition of the wall of an under-construction mosque in Kadalpur village. Her action threatened to destroy communal peace, the Chief Minister had said. She was subsequently issued a charge sheet and given 15 days time to reply. The deadline expires on August 20.