This petite young lady has kicked up national storm without uttering even a single word. She has the entire nation — barring the Samajwadi Party — rallying around her.
From candle marches in Meerut, to anti-corruption marches in Kanpur, Lucknow and Gorakhpur, political demonstrations at all district headquarters, online petitions on Facebook and comments by thousands on Twitter, Durga Shakti Nagpal has emerged as a youth icon who dared to fight corruption.
While the nation is debating on this young woman, little is known about her and she continues to shut out the media completely.
Durga was born in Agra in 1985 and her father Subhash Chandra Nagpal was an official in the cantonment board. The family belongs to Chhattisgarh.
“She was always a quiet child and remained focused on her studies. She had a disarming smile but was never boisterous,” recalls a family friend who knew the family while they were posted in Lucknow.
Durga, a graduate in computer engineering, got selected in the civil services in 2009 and secured 20th position in the country in the UPSC examination.
One of her batch mates in the IAS Academy remembers Durga as a “quiet but very determined and focused person.”
“She never made her presence felt and shunned limelight. She did not even like it if her friends spoke about her achievements. But she is brave and has an opinion of her own — it was never easy to sway her away from it. We always knew she would make an excellent officer but some of us were apprehensive that she may not fit into the political mould,” said the officer who did not wish to be identified for obvious reasons.
Durga had been allotted Punjab cadre spent over two years in Punjab as an officer-under-training with the Mohali administration.
She married Abhishek Singh, an IAS officer of UP cadre and got her cadre changed to UP also. She was posted in Ghaziabad as a sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) in September 2012. She then got appointed as SDM of Gautam Buddha Nagar. One of the employees who has worked with Durga in Ghaziabad says that she was a “no-nonsense” officer but also had a compassionate side to her.
“She would not take excuses for not working but if any of us had a genuine problem, she would also go out of her to help,” the employee said on phone.